Training a bark alert

I finally got started with training an alert behaviour for Riva. I started on Saturday and quickly got good barks from him. We played with a toy for a while and then I hid the toy under my hands. Riva tried offering sit and down and some other behaviours we have been training but soon he got frustrated and gave a bark. I tossed the toy for him and then we would play some more. After a couple of repetitions he started to offer the bark as soon as I hid the toy under my hands. That was enough for the first session.

On Sunday we had search training and we continued alert training there with others than me. Katja played with Riva first and then "stole" the toy and hid it under her hands. Again Riva offered a down first (which is not a bad thing at all) but quickly started to offer barking. Then he had a break while we trained some other dogs. Before ending the training he got an other round of alert practice. At this point he only needs to let out one good bark to get the toy but little by little he will have to bark longer and longer before getting his reward. The final alert behaviour will also consist of other elements, not just the barking. That is why I said that him offering a down in alert training is not a bad thing. He is not supposed to jump against or otherwise touch the victim and the easiest way to prevent that is to teach him that alert means (for example) "down, stay there and bark". Or it could be "sit and bark", which ever seems to come naturally.

We also got first snow last night! It propably won't last but it sure looks pretty.