Learning to Hula Hoop...?

July 20, 2009 -

Because it is so hot here in Arizona, tonight is the last night of Agility classes until the Fall.  And, with the increasing temperatures we've been avoiding out frisbee sessions as well.  I'm concerned about keeping Copley in top notch shape so we can quickly get back to competiton in the fall. 

To keep her mind active and continue to build on her "team" mentality, I've decided that Copley should Hula Hoop.

I have visions of Copley being a famous disc/trick dog and making the Tonight Show.  But, until then we've got lots of practicing to do.   Yesterday, I took out the Hula Hoop.  Copley hates it and ran to hide behind her daddy's legs.  My dreams were instantly shot - but I'm not going to give up (just yet).

In situations where your dog is afraid of something, it is really important that you get them to be unafraid of it.  Find out what motivates your pooch and be sure to generously reward them as they get closer to doing what you want them to do. 

Set a small goal for yourself. 

Our goal was to get Copley to walk inside the hoop and sit down.

Here are the steps we took to get there (in one 20 min session):

• Put the Hula Hoop lying flat on the ground
• Put a bit of peanut butter (a pinch) on outside of the hoop, tell her to "touch"
• Every time she "touched" the hula hoop she'd be rewarded by peanut butter
• Put peanut butter in different spots each time so she has to find the sweet spot
• Once she was doing this consistently, I put the peanut butter on the inner rim of the hula hoop - this required her to step into the hoop
• This took a little while but eventually she was standing inside the hoop
• I added the command "in" everytime she went into the hoop
• Then, after she was in the hoop, licking off the peanut butter, I'd ask her to sit
• She did!  yay!  Lots of Praise (I even let her lick off the spoon of PB I was holding)
• Repeat

When she missed a step, we'd slow down and go back go the beginning to build up slowly again. I hope to have her walking through the hoop by the end of the week!

Has anyone else trained with a Hula Hoop?  What tricks can you do?