Elena & Indie, Miniature Schnauzer, 7 months old

Yes it is completely normal for a dog to get confused and offer stuff from a previous/similar trick. But I am actually happy about it, because it means that the dog is making a generalisation and it is always good to have more behaviours to choose from. To help them finish one trick without too much confusion, I try to use totally different objects. If she tries to put the hind leg on just now and than, don’t worry, just make sure you don’t reward that. If I see that the dog is really insisting on putting all 4 on the object, I will take something smaller, so there is only room for 2 feet. 🙂

Good! Don’t worry about intensity. Some dogs are more, some less intense. I don’t really train for extra strong pushes, because perhaps some dogs don’t feel comfortable smashing their nose against your hand. I do want an obvious touch though, so I will sometimes train this with my eyes close so the dog can’t fool me with an “almost” touch. 😀 If you want more intensity, do it when she is really playful or waiting to go out or something. Or just ask for one touch and than throw food for a while. So everything is more dynamic. Expecting a party after nose touch is very useful for recall. 🙂 So you can get some special tasty treats for when you go outside the house, call her now and than, ask her to do nose touch and go straight to some dynamic reward. Food throws or even playing with toys.

Nice! She is really nice and tight most of the time. Outside try to add some distance and speed. Switch between rewarding around the cone, to keep her as tight as possible and rewarding away from the cone (throws or chasing) to add more dynamic and speed.

Field session first. 🙂 It is very nice that she got so excited when you used better food last time. That is how you will be able to reward her for extra difficult things and working around plenty of distractions. Since you were not using it lately and you didn’t used to shape outside, she just didn’t think of offering behaviours. But this time when you helped her start with normal food she did. 🙂 Normally I wouldn’t do such a long shaping session outside, just enough to have her remember what we are doing and than you can make it more fun by throwing treats as soon as she does first 180-270 degrees of the wrap. Like what you can see on one of the last videos Kristina posted. 🙂 And if she is very motivated, change your starting position so she has to go further and further on her own to offer the wrap.

Going into the box – yes, I think the major issue is the sound the bottom of the box makes when she steps on it. You can try just putting it on a folded blanket, I think it will muffle the sound and make it more friendly. If not you can cut the bottom or use a bigger cardboard box. 🙂

Haha, she is too funny! Nice, she is definitely making progress! 🙂 Do you think she would understand you already if you sent her to the cone with a verbal cue (and help of body language?) If so, you can do that sometimes. Or start with it perhaps and after let her offer it on her own. Do you have someone to help you on the field? You can have them restrain her and practise sprints over straight tunnel or two jumps in a straight line with bars on the ground. Gradually you can combine – starting with a wrap and than sprint over the straight tunnel… So she gets some running as well, not just thinking hard. 🙂