Skip the training, just make treats

The human in this partnership has been slacking about keeping Abby's blog up-to-date. Our training sessions have been a bit unfocused of late.

We still continue to work on our City Walking skills and have been working on a "Go To Your Mat" command. The latter involves asking Abby to go, on command, to her fleece dog mat. It is just a simple fleece covered pad that I got to put into her crate. When it isn't in her crate, they are lying around the house.

I have two of them, one in my bedroom and one that usually is in the living room. However, now that afternoon thunderstorm season has arrived in earnest, that mat has now been relocated to the guest bathroom. Abby isn't too into thunderstorms and lightening and prefers to hide in the bathroom or my closet. Yes, Abby is a smart Indiana dog that knows strong storms can spawn tornadoes and the best place to be is in an interior room away from windows. I can't have my princess Abby lying on just the tile floor.

Anyways, when I remember to bring the mat back out to the living room, I will work on directing Abby to her "MAT". When I have the clicker, treats/kibbles in my hand she does a better job of finding the MAT and automatically going into a sit or down. Without the treats, the response time is much slower (with this and also with "sits"). Yes, I have to admit, Abby is a "What's in it for me" type of gal. Patricia McConnell had a recent blog post about this on her site "at the other end of the leash".

We do vary which "MAT" we go to, but we tend to do this exercise the same time every day, Dinner Time. Abby knows that to get her meal she needs to work for it (sits, downs, some Rally-O exercises), so I wonder how much is her knowing that it is dinner time and expecting to do these things and since mom is staring at my bed, I guess I'm doing my sits and downs there. Yeah, a leap, and I should take the time to work on really making sure she understands the concept of "going to her mat" and proofing that at other points during the day rather than just dinner time.

I did manage to have a week of "Utter Adoration" from my dog, and that was the week where I made her CORN DOG BISCUITS (muffins). This recipe is from "Throw Me a Bone" by Cooper Gillespie and Sally Sampson. Abby really loves these and when I have them out, she comes over, sits in front of me with these most adoring and intense eyes. I almost think that she loves me, but alas, I know better, she loves my cooking :). Though I did ponder how I could use these muffins to clicker her train her to clean my bathrooms. Yeah, she was really that focused on getting these corn dog biscuits.

CORN DOG BISCUITS

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat or all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2-3 tbsp honey
• 1 large egg slightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup corn (fresh or canned)
• 1/2 cup chopped hot dogs (turkey or chicken dogs preferred)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease muffin tin pan with oil or spray. Alternatively, use muffin paper liners
3. In a large bowl, mix cornmeal, flour and baking powder
4. In a medium sized bowl, mix honey, egg, yogurt, oil, corn and hotdogs. Stir to blend well. 
5. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour and stir until blended. 
6. Spoon batter in the muffin tin pan. 
7. Bake for ~ 20-25 minutes, muffins should be golden brown.
8. Cool to room temperature. 
9. Store in ziploc bags or other airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.

This weekend I'm going to bake Abby some peanut butter cookies. I'll bake some for me too, but mine will also include chocolate chips!