Clover spoke!

**fawkese1** · 09-01-2009, 05:38 PM

i've been trying to teach clover "speak" since i got him and i finally captured it last night! i had tried all sorts of methods and all i would ever get was frustrated! last night, we were playing ball and he barked so i grabbed my clicker real quick and i caught it. today, on my lunch break, he did it again, this time w/o the ball just w the cue! gosh he is a quick learner. anyway, i was so proud

pawzaddict · 09-01-2009, 06:50 PM

OMG Harvick did it finally on command this weekend too! I remembered Crio's post about when the dog does something you want them to learn like speak, paw at the face, or whatever to catch em doing it and then praise them for doing it then put the command with it, well we did this and FINALLY he speaks!

Yay for Clover! Does he ever do it and keep going once you praise him cuz he gets all excited?

**Criosphynx** · 09-01-2009, 08:55 PM

congrats both of you. My husband has forbidden me teaching speak. LOL

My old dog Scooter, took TWO YEARS to do this on cue... he probably barked 5 times a year or less.... He barked sooooo rarely. But yeah, once you capture it. Its there.

pawzaddict · 09-01-2009, 09:18 PM

People tell me that speak is just an annoying "trick" which is really just an annoying habit LOL well Harvick talks a lot we might as well get him to do it for fun. Oh I guess I should mention "speak"=bark, "tell me"=talking...he does what huskies do when they just make noises like they are telling you something, he does this when we first get home lol.

**Criosphynx** · 09-01-2009, 09:20 PM

hahah...I do ask Chili "do you want it?" when I have a toy and he grumbles at me...but the DH hasn't seen that one yet....lol

pawzaddict · 09-01-2009, 09:22 PM

lol I think we all need to take video of our dogs doing it and share!

**fawkese1** · 09-01-2009, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawzaddict

OMG Harvick did it finally on command this weekend too! I remembered Crio's post about when the dog does something you want them to learn like speak, paw at the face, or whatever to catch em doing it and then praise them for doing it then put the command with it, well we did this and FINALLY he speaks!

Yay for Clover! Does he ever do it and keep going once you praise him cuz he gets all excited?

not yet, i hope he doesn't. he is very vocal (makes lots of whining and sighing and grumbly noises), but doesn't bark a lot so it was really hard to capture it at a good time. he only really ever barks when he is afraid of something.....
you should see him though, he wags his tail right after i click like he is proud of himself for finally figuring it out. so far i'm getting a mix of soft "woofs" and good solid barks. now that he has the idea i'm going to raise the expectation to solid barks only.

**Criosphynx** · 09-01-2009, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fawkese1

not yet, i hope he doesn't. he is very vocal (makes lots of whining and sighing and grumbly noises), but doesn't bark a lot so it was really hard to capture it at a good time. he only really ever barks when he is afraid of something.....
you should see him though, he wags his tail right after i click like he is proud of himself for finally figuring it out. so far i'm getting a mix of soft "woofs" and good solid barks. now that he has the idea i'm going to raise the expectation to solid barks only.

with Scooter I used to say "woof?" for a soft bark and "you barking???" for a loud one...hehe

**Mikey** · 09-02-2009, 12:37 AM

CONGRATS!!!

I taught our dog Mandy to speak easily because she's vocal and RUDE. So I held a cookie and said speak with a 'talkie hand' signal. And then waited. And in seconds she was barking at me (i.e. being rude) she was very stunned to get a cookie and a 'good girl' for that-but she picked it up quick!

I then differentiated speak and sing (making sing a drawled out howly/bark-it's a husky thing) and speak a bark. I later combined sing with 'playing the guitar' and it's a pretty cool party trick LOL

**fawkese1** · 09-02-2009, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikey

CONGRATS!!!

I taught our dog Mandy to speak easily because she's vocal and RUDE. So I held a cookie and said speak with a 'talkie hand' signal. And then waited. And in seconds she was barking at me (i.e. being rude) she was very stunned to get a cookie and a 'good girl' for that-but she picked it up quick!

I then differentiated speak and sing (making sing a drawled out howly/bark-it's a husky thing) and speak a bark. I later combined sing with 'playing the guitar' and it's a pretty cool party trick LOL

that's a great idea...clover is very vocal and now that i am getting the hang of capturing stuff i think i'll try to capture a howly thing he does too!