How to...

[JennSLK]

Eric would like to train one of the girls or Wart to get a beer from the fridge and bring it to him. How?

[skittledoo]

haha when you figure it out let me know... lol

[RedyreRottweilers]

That is a VERY long chain of behaviors.

Start with hold and retrieve, and you could work up from there.

[milos_mommy]

It totally could work but it would take a while to teach...you'd have to do all the behaviors seperately...and put some kind of pull thing on the fridge which would mean the dogs would have fridge access...

Teaching one to bring it from a cooler might be signifigant easier.

[JennSLK]

Ok thanks Red. Eric is having problems with the girls. They dont listen or respect him. It might be a good way for him to bond with them

[JennSLK]

Oh a cooler would work. That way they cant get into the food.

[milos_mommy]

Yeah...i'm not so sure how smart it would be to teach a hounddog to get into the fridge...

[JennSLK]

Lol. Hound dog in the fridge. Good god.

[lizzybeth727]

If you want to build the relationship, you might want to start with simpler behaviors - like sit, down, shake, roll over, play dead, jump through a hoop, etc. The more steps involved in a behavior, the harder it will be. So for getting a drink out of the fridge, you'll have to teach your dog:

1. Tug the fridge door open. Harder than it sounds.

2. Find the drink in the fridge. Very hard when there are other smellier things in the fridge.

3. Pick up and carry the drink - and don't drop it or shake it up too much, and certainly don't puncture it with your teeth (I'll add, too, that metals like aluminum are much more difficult because of the way they feel on dogs' teeth).

4. Deliver the drink to me. Don't just drop it at my feet (again with the shaking it thing), put it in my chair or in my hand. Very difficult to get it that specific.

So not only does this behavior actually involve four different behaviors, each different behavior is particularly difficult to teach. I'm certainly not saying it's impossible (I teach this to my service dogs), but it might be too much for the "casual" dog owner to tackle.

[Gempress]

We thought about teaching that to the boys as a cute party trick. Then we realized that teaching a dog how to open a fridge might not be the best idea. We had enough problems when the cat was able to open our old fridge.

[MafiaPrincess]

My very first trainer has goldens. It was my first experience with people who have *gasp* trained dogs. Family members all had monsters that jumped on you stole food etc.. One of hers has been used in dog food commercials and makes an at home SD for her mother..

One of the things she had taught earlier on was to retrieve beer from the fridge. Awesome trick people thought it was great.. Dog's weakness was carrots. If there were carrots in the fridge you were not getting your beer as she was gorging on the entire carrot package...

I wouldn't be teaching my dogs to get into the fridge ;) I'd have a disaster.

[Zoom]

I thought about teaching this to my dogs, then I realized that teaching Virgo how to open the fridge was just asking for a world of disasters, lol! Though I'm sure fetching a beer would enamour her to my father. I want to work on the cooler one, that would probably work well.

[JennSLK]

I may get a small beer fridge and put a baby lock on the big fridge.

[milos_mommy]

Jenn...don't trust baby locks with dogs.
I bought a child lock for my garbage can, it took Milo about three seconds to figure out how to open it.

[lizzybeth727]

You know though, if you just want to teach it as a "parlor trick" to show off, it wouldn't be too dangerous. For our service dogs, we teach them to tug doors open using an old men's tie (thrift store!) or thick nylon rope. We tie the tie to the fridge handle, and they grab the tie to open the door. (Of course the service dogs work a lot on stimulus control - only doing the behavior when you ask them to - so they don't generally tug the door open unless you asked them.) So, what you could do, if you don't want to spend hours and hours on stimulus control, is when you want to show off the trick, put the tie on the door.... and when something really yummy is in the fridge, take the tie off the door.

[DanL]

Melanie taught her dogs to do that. I seem to remember she keeps the beer in those foam cozies so the dog can carry it easily.

It wouldn't work for me. The entire bottom shelf of our fridge is where the raw food for the dogs is kept. WAY too much temptation.

My dogs have learned how to open the sliding screen door. Not much of a trick, but like any kids, they leave the door wide open. Getting them to shut it would be nice.

[Dekka]

how about teaching the dog to bring him a coaster for his beer first? Walk before you run sort of thing. Still a neat trick and useful :)

Does your hubby know how to use a clicker?

[JennSLK]

God love my hubby, but he is not much of a trainer. I dont use a clicker, I prefer food training. Just a personal preference. He wouldnt know the first thing about clicker training.

He trys tho. He is so happy my cat listens to him more than me. Emma and Jazz kinda look at him and say Yeah, um NO.

[lizzybeth727]

If you are clicker training, you're also using food (about 99% of the time, anyway). A clicker just communicates to the dog what behavior it is that's going to get him a reward. So any time you click, you have to follow it up with a reward, usually food. If you're already training with food, it will probably be very easy to start clicker training. You can check out www.clickertraining.com for more info on clicker training and how to get started doing it.

[ihartgonzo]

This is how I went about teaching Gonzo to bring a soda from the fridge... it's still a work in progress, but he would definitely have it down by now if I was more consistent. Sometimes he'll get annoyed with the fridge, that's the biggest obstacle for us.

I started by simply placing a bottle (a plastic water bottle) in the bottom shelf on the door of the (open) fridge, getting him interested in it, putting him in a wait, sitting in the living room and telling him to "bring the bottle". Click/treat for bringing it. Over and over. He only gets rewarded for bringing it directly up to me, on my lap. But his "bring" is really solid, anyway.

I looped one of his flyball tugs around the handle of the fridge, and enticed him to pull while telling him "open". If he pulled, even a little, I'd open it for him, and reward him. Then I progressed to helping him open it less and less, until he could on his own. It actually takes a LOT of effort for a dog to pull the fridge door open. It would be much easier to use a cooler or a small fridge, but I just didn't feel like transferring drinks to that. I didn't teach him to actually use the fridge handle, because I don't want teeth marks on it, and I can remove the flyball tug and the fridge is inaccessible.

You have to work on a few other commands... "close", for instance. Gonzo already knew "hit it" from flyball, so that didn't take long. You also have to make sure your pup knows exactly what it is they are bringing to you, so they aren't tempted to investigate the fridge. Put the drinks only in the bottom shelf, on the door, and make sure the shelves nearby don't contain any enticing foods. And use REALLY YUMMY treats!

I agree with Lizzybeth, that clickers can help a LOT with the whole process... they aren't mandatory, but it makes marking the right behaviors way easier. ; D Good luck!

[lizzybeth727]

^^^^great description!