Goat Diaries Blog by Alexandra Kurland

[Nanno]

Today is only the second time I've messed around with Sputnik and the "fetch rag". Considering it's been almost a week with no practice on anything (except picking up trash last Sunday), he did amazingly well! He took the rag in his mouth immediately when I presented it and was rewarded. Within ten minutes I got him to where I could toss it a short distance and he would pick it up and bring it back to me. Letting go is a little bit of an issue. It's a difficult concept to grasp. I would like to click as soon as he picks up the rag, but if I do that he drops it and comes running over for his treat. But if I wait to click until he comes back and gives it to me, he's a little confused because I'm clicking for when he drops it in my hand, not for when he picks it up. I think with practice he'll start to figure out what I actually want--pick up the object, bring it to me, put it in my hand.

Oh, and I wish he would figure out how to hold it daintily in his lips instead of slobbering all over the thing and handing me a soggy, limp rag! Yuck! Nevertheless, I'm quite proud of how quickly he's learning this after just two short sessions spaced almost a week apart. "Clever boy, Sputnik!"