I was driving mum a bit nuts last night at training. We are now up to the Rally Excellent level after passing Rally Advanced the other month. Besides learning some new moves for this next level I also need to do something called the Honor. From what I gather it is either being in a sit or down and being told to stay there while the other dog does the course. It is a lot like the sit and drops we have to do in obedience, except I am still on lead (just a long one) and mum can talk to me during it…. So unlike obedience where I just sit or lay in position off lead in this Rally Honor thing I feel compelled to talk back to mum (she calls it barking) and it turns out judges don’t like this two-way communication during this exercise. So hence mum has a dual activity of ‘speak’ and ‘quiet’ that we are doing some extra work on at the moment.
So speak is just that…. Speaking. But rather than teach a quiet dog to speak, what mum has been taught is put a command to when I am ‘talking’. So this means when I am there ‘talking’ mum says the word ‘speak’ and uses a hand signal, which for us is her moving her hand from clenched to wide open (jazz hand). She does this while I am ‘talking’ so I associate both the word and signal with the ‘talking’.
Now it turns out that the real aim of this for mum is “quiet”. So once I have done “speak” she then changes her hand into a beak kinda shape and says “quiet”. Now that is really when I get told I am a good boy and get the treats. Obviously if you are concentrating on teaching the “speak” than use your “yes” word and treat after “speak’ but mum seems more keen on “quiet” so I tend to get more praise and treats after that… not sure why???
So our 1st Excellent level Rally O trial is in early January so expecting there will be lots more practicing of this quiet before then.
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Paws Up and have a great Tuesday with lots of speaking.
1st World Dog 
Nemo always has something to say, but he’s usually quite polite and waits to insert a grumble into the conversation. Rico, on the other hand, gets wound up into bark mode that gets higher in pitch if you don’t mind him fast enough. “Quiet” trick ….. hmmmmmmm, must try this one 😀
People seem to have taught mum it is all about the reverse… teach the “speak” to then teach the “quiet”. Have fun with it.
I love how you have the same expression through the different commands on your pics mate :). I don’t see what they all have against a bit of chatter really. Dad wasn’t impressed with my chatting to the garbage bin guy at the park this morning. But we have our discussions and he gives me treats too (cause dad give him some he got)! Mum says I don’t talk with her, well I can’t place a single “word” in when she is there…
We had been doing our obedience training in the park this morning when mum took the photos. I had been on bet behaviour.
This is the same way I teach “speak” and “quiet”. If the dog doesn’t know what “speak” is it is hard to reward “quiet”. 🙂
So you are in on this trick too…. Here I was thinking Mum wanted me to have my say.
Haha – you know what they say about “great minds” 🙂
Golly Bodhi – I never speak at all apart from the odd humph when I’m settling down for a sleep:)