Inky, my husband’s dog, is blind. She wasn’t born this way; in fact, this is a fairly recent development for her, thanks to a very rare and unusual autoimmune disorder. We noticed her holding her head oddly one night, but thought it was just the light. By the time we realized she was having trouble seeing, it was progressing very fast. We estimate she lost most of her vision within two weeks.
I happened across this video a couple of months ago and bookmarked it. I enjoyed it at the time, but even as I was watching, I was thinking of clicker training.
I really like shaping, and I love the results I get with a dog who has learned to offer and vary behavior. I hear frequently from clients or trainer friends who don’t enjoy shaping or don’t get satisfactory results, and while it’s true that not every dog adores it, I think that most of the time their failure to love it isn’t that they have the wrong dog — it’s that they, or their dogs, are diligently following this checklist.
So tonight I sent Shakespeare to fetch a dinner bucket, as I often do. We feed the dogs in steel pails. Both Shakespeare and Laev will retrieve buckets when asked; Inky will happily carry her bucket full of food to a more private dining area, but she as yet has no idea that it can also travel empty. That’s Inky….