How to teach a dog to fetch a newspaper..

So while this is an assignment in one of my classes (the class is learning... yes its psyc related) (and no, its not for marks...), I'm interested to see how other people would go about it. What would you do?

 

rub the paper in hamburger for a week.

stop rubbing the paper in hamburger.

hope he doesn't clue in.

 

Wont he just eat the newspaper, instead of fetching it?

 

thats a chance you're gonna have to take.

 

First thing Id do is associate the paper with something good, like a treat. Get them to just touch the paper with their nose, praise and treat them. then id work on getting them to carry it. again praise and treat. finally id work on the fetch and recall.

something like that off the top of my head. i used the same sort of idea to get Rosco to ring the bell to go out.

 

Your dog rings a bell when he needs to go outside? For real?

 

Classic conditioning, but eventually it will turn into habituation. So you need to reinnerate the unconditioned stimulus at somepoint, or random points, after a random amount of time/times he's fetched because that will make him continue to do it. I think? I failed psyc but the book tells everything.

 

I think this is a really cool idea
Imagine training crows to find money for ya

[ame="http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=NhmZBMuZ6vE"]YouTube - TEDTalks : The amazing intelligence of crows - Joshua Klein[/ame]

 

Is that right?

Thanks to me.

 

Depends on the dog's personality as to the type of training method I'd use.

What would work with my male would not work with my female. I'd have to resort to something that would appeal to each of them individually in order to hold their interest in carrying out the task.

With Forrest, I'd just have to tell him "pick it up" and "bring it here".

Now with Chloe, I'd have to pretend she wasn't allowed the paper and tell her either "gimme that" which makes her thinks an object is highly desireable. Then when she picked it up, I'd just have to say, "Lemme see" and she'd bring it to me.

 

Well yes, you gave me the idea, but I did the training myself

[ame="http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=OHwZ9_20CLs"]YouTube - Rosco works the bell[/ame]

 

Idea? Be fair now, I explained how to carry out the idea. LOL

But truly, Rosco gets the real credit ... he did the learning and succeeded.

It was good team effort put forth.

Now if only I can un-learn Forrest from ringing the bell. He's taken things one step further and now rings itl whenever he's ready to call it a night and wants his nighttime treat ... or, even when he wakes in the middle of the night as is just hungry.

 

Awesome.

 

Both my dawgs do this. We trained the pup to do this and the old one picked it up

 

Well thats what i mean by gave me the idea. i asked how you did it

but i did go about it in a different manner. either way, yes you played a part

 

Yes, reinforcement (variable is best) would be necessary or the behaviour would extinguish. Its actually operant conditioning though, not classical conditioning.

 

Learning to inhibit a learned response is like 4 million times harder than initially learning a response.

 

I can't wait to see billybob on all 4's trying to show a dog how to pick up a paper. I'll toss ya a biscuit if you get it right

 

That's why I always tell people to seriously reconsider teaching a dog how to speak.