Pull Up Rope
This clip is the entire "Jyah saves his Dragon" scene from our movie "The Wizard" . Jyah searchs for his dragon and finds it hanging off of a bridge. He pulls up the toy dragon which has been tied to the end of a rope and hung off of a bridge.
After saving his dragon, Jyah must then vanquish the villian who stole it.
Foundation behaviors that Jyah had already been trained: solid retrieve, down, and foot target.
He was also versed in an intermediate bridge.
This is an advanced action and takes a bit of patience to accomplish. I used a clicker and also an intermediate bridge in teaching it.
First, I made the rope a fun object for Jyah. We played a lot of tug-o-war with the rope, and I would say "pull" while he was tugging. As he pulled, I would give an intermediate bridge.
Since Standard Poodles have fairly long legs, I decided it would be easier for Jyah to pull up a rope if he were lying down instead of standing.
Jyah is the first dog I trained to pull up a rope, and when I subsequently taught this move to Sydney, I skipped the step on the floor and went directly to the table (tower).
Here, I am tugging (keeping tension on) the rope -- so it is still similar to a game of tug-o-war only played with Jyah lying down. In the picture, I'm telling him to "pull" and clicking when he does. I cue him "foot" indicating the rope. As soon as he puts his foot on the rope, I click and treat.
I continued tugging to keep Jyah interested in the rope, c/ting only when he pulled with his mouth and then put his foot on the rope.
The final stage was tying a toy that Jyah really liked to the rope and letting it hang about two feet down. As soon as Jyah started pulling on the rope, I would began the intermediate bridge to let him know he was doing the behavior correctly and to continue doing it. When Jyah pulled the toy to the top, I would untie it and we would play with the toy. Gradually, I let the rope hang down further and further until Jyah would pull the rope all the way up to the top no matter how far down I had hung it.
Next, I put Jyah on a table (tower) and hung the rope over the side. I tugged the rope, and as he pulled, I began the intermediate bridge to let him know he was doing the correct thing. As soon as he put his foot on the rope (to better hold it), I clicked and treated.
When Jyah was doing this, I began telling him to "get it" as I wiggled the rope that hung past his foot. If he took his foot off the rope, I would remind him "foot" and only click and treat when he had his foot on the rope as he reached down with his mouth to get the rope that was between his foot and my hand.
As Jyah kept his foot on the rope and reached past his foot to get the rope below it, I began the immediate bridge. This progressed to where I would bridge him to keep going so that he pulled up with his mouth and held the rope with his foot for two times.
