Reflection

I'm going to be answering some questions to reflect on my learning experience:

1. What was your favorite part of the topic you chose?
My favorite part was getting to work with my dog. Even though she was very difficult; it was a great experience.

2. What was your least favorite part of the topic you chose?
Whenever she would get distracted. It was very annoying!

3. What do you like best about Genius Hour research?
Getting to learn thing I never thought were possible!

4. What do you like least about Genius Hour research?
Having to find one thing to learn about.

5. What was the most important thing you learned about yourself, how you learn, or research in general as a result of this work?
I learned I'm not a very patient person. It was really difficult!

Problems

I'm going to list the problems I've had during this project.

The first problem was getting Sophie to concentrate. Even in a quiet room she could not concentrate. The second problem was getting her to do the trick instead of going straight for the treat. She would jump to get the treat but wouldn't do the trick.

Sometimes I got frustrated cause she would literally just lay there doing nothing. She would also walk away multiple times. It got annoying.

Kiss

I'm going to teach Sophie how to kiss with using her nose. 


First I put a treat in front of my face and say kiss. I offer my cheek and wait for her to touch it with her nose. As soon as she makes contact I pull away before she licks me. The problem is not moving fast enough. She will lick me before I get the chance to move. We are still working on that.

Next trick....

   The next trick I'm going to attempt is the army crawl. First thing I'm going to do is get Sophie to lay down. Next thing I'm going to do is hold the treat in front of her nose and slowly dragging it along the floor. As soon as she crawls I say the command crawl and give her a treat. If she does stand up to get the treat, I quickly remove the treat and start from the beginning. I can't wait to get started! 

Mastered!

   We have mastered the highfive! Whenever I hold my hand out, even with no treat, she highfives my hand. Also, when I have treats out, even if its not for that trick, she puts her hand out even if that's not what we are trying to do. So now I'm going to try to put some time in between tricks cause she is getting confused. 

Dance!

  I've decided to teach Sophie dance again. I thought it might go better this time.

  First thing I do is slowly move the treat above her head. While I do that I say dance and slowly move the treat above her head in a circular montion. The only thing she wanted was the treat so she wasn't really paying attention. But, I did get her to spin halfway so she spun in a semicircle. So it was a halfway success. We're almost there!

High Five

   The first attempt didn't work. So I thought I would try something easier. I'm going to try to teach her how to high five.

   First thing I do is tell her to sit. After she sat I gave her a treat. After that I put the treat in front of her slightly out of reach and gently tapped her paw while saying the command high five. She couldn't stay still while I was looking up what I'm supposed to do next. So she sneaked getting a treat from the bag.

    After a while I tried again repeating all the steps.It went really well. After a while she starting high fiving me by just saying the command. It was success!

First Fail

 The first trick I wanted to teach my dog was to dance. So the first thing I did was get out the treats. I used Purina's Beggin Strips.  The second Sophie saw them she started jumping on me. To start the trick I waved the strip above her head in a circular motion, but she kept moving backwards. So I tried again. The second time I did it she started jumping. So I tried one more time. I put the treat above her head, then she started jumping and growling cause she was frustrated with me. As she was jumping she bit me trying to get to the treat. I got a scratch in between my thumb and pointer finger. In conclusion, don't hold the treat too high up.

   Have you ever wanted to find new talents but never had the time? Genius hour is a perfect way of doing that! I've been given the opportunity to find new talents within me, i'm so glad to be given this wonderful project in my English class.

  I've always wanted to do something with my dog, Sophie. I've always wanted to teach her new skills and help her develop talents. So I've decided to be a dog trainer for this project. I've already found some amazing tricks like dance, salute, and skateboard. I can't wait to get ready and teack my dog some tricks!