I am super-duper surprised she says it took a few weeks to teach the Outside button! It took about… 15 minutes to teach my dog to use her Food bell. And then the Outside bell and Treat bells were similarly fast. I don’t think button pressing is inherently harder than bell ringing, so that shouldn’t make a difference.
I guess if the dog was starting at zero training it would take two weeks. (Robin already knew how to Target an item, which she learned after learning hand Touch, which she learned as part of the process of teaching how clicker-like training with positive reinforcers works in the first place. )
I can imagine abstract words like “Tomorrow” and “Where” taking a whole lot longer, but the words that are just ways to obtain concrete things are extremely easy to teach. Outside bells are a very well-known and frequently-done thing. Look them up on Amazon and you’ll see about 20 options for sale.
I am super-duper surprised she says it took a few weeks to teach the Outside button! It took about… 15 minutes to teach my dog to use her Food bell. And then the Outside bell and Treat bells were similarly fast. I don’t think button pressing is inherently harder than bell ringing, so that shouldn’t make a difference.
I guess if the dog was starting at zero training it would take two weeks. (Robin already knew how to Target an item, which she learned after learning hand Touch, which she learned as part of the process of teaching how clicker-like training with positive reinforcers works in the first place. )
I can imagine abstract words like “Tomorrow” and “Where” taking a whole lot longer, but the words that are just ways to obtain concrete things are extremely easy to teach. Outside bells are a very well-known and frequently-done thing. Look them up on Amazon and you’ll see about 20 options for sale.