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Pictures "Do As I Do" cue

Akoni

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I watched the documentary "A Dog's Life" on Netflix recently, and learned about a cue called "Do As I Do" that's been used to study dog memory and learning through imitation. Basically, you do any action and the dog mimics you. It looked like fun to this former dog trainer, so I decided to try it out with Wilo. Wilo is my 7-year-old Basenji mix, my favorite "souvenir" from when we lived in Zambia, southern Africa.

To start, you need 3 cues that your dog knows well. I always combine verbal cues with hand signals, so first I practiced sit, jump up, and go away using only a verbal cue. She actually already knew that really well, so we quickly moved onto me cycling through demonstrating one of the known behaviors, then saying "do it (cue name)." She mastered the other two, but had a little trouble initially with "go away" (actually, do it go away is "cita tiye" to her as she's trained in ciBemba language). She kind of hates that cue anyways since it sometimes means she's underfoot or otherwise in the way, so maybe her distaste contributed to that. Eventually she got all three, and I was able to phase out the cue name and just demonstrate the action then tell her to do it. Towards the end, she was not even waiting for me to say "do it" and rushing into things. (Often when we're training, she reminds me of that goody two-shoes in class who raises her arm frantically before the teacher is done asking the question.) Next, we tried some other cues she knew (shake, lay down, bow) but I just demonstrated and said "do it." She did so well! I may be biased, but she really is a smart girl. We ended with batting a ball; in the next few days we'll work on more cues she's never done before.

Has anyone ever done this with their dogs? If not, I highly recommend it, it's a really fun way to exercise your dog's brain!

And because I know the rules, here are some pictures of Wilo.
Wilo log and sun.jpg wilofloofy.jpg
 

macawpower58

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Get a video please, it sounds like an interesting training and one both person and dog would enjoy.
 

MommyBird

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Isn't it exciting and fulfilling when you are so in synch?
and - love your siggy pic, made me laugh!
 

Clueless

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DoasIDo-Master

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Good morning, my name is Sara Tagliati and I'm a Do as I Do expert (I teach this method all around the world to dog trainers).
If you are interested you can fins our facebook page (do as I do training) or the web page Do as I Do | L'apprendimento sociale come tecnica di addestramento

You will find many videos and articles about it. If you want to learn the method you can read the book and follow the indications (precisely) or come to a seminar :)

welcome on board
hope that you will send us some videos
See you soon
Sara
 

Akoni

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Get a video please, it sounds like an interesting training and one both person and dog would enjoy.
I hate hearing my voice on video, but I'll try to if it'll encourage others to try this with their pups!
Isn't it exciting and fulfilling when you are so in synch?
and - love your siggy pic, made me laugh!
It really is! Training is such a great bonding experience with dogs and parrots.
Me too!!!
Thanks. ;) I was waiting to see if anyone would say anything.
 

Aubrey

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I'd love to see a video of you and you doggie :)
 

JLcribber

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It was a great show. If you live in Canada you can watch it here.

A Dog’s Life
 
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