Update on signals

Laura commented that my proposed signals for down and sit look similar and might be confusing. My reply was, nah, my previous dog didn't get confused on those two and I think Dragon is getting the idea, too. But just in case, I decided to test that theory...

I pulled out Dragon's mat to keep him in one place and make the exercise nice and easy. I asked him to do a couple of "push ups" on a verbal cue and then on the signals (arm bending at elbow and moving up for sit, and bending at elbow and moving outward and then down for down). He started to anticipate switching between the two positions as soon as I started to move my hand. I tricked him and started waving my hand and just slightly moving my arm but resetting him if he switched positions in response to that. He quickly stopped anticipating and waited to see my arm making a full signal.

At this point I gave him the test: I signaled him to sit, rewarded him, and then gave him another signal to sit. He immediately lay down. I reset him in a sit, and signaled him to sit again. Again he lay down. I reset him. I signaled him to down. He did. I signaled him to sit. He did. I signaled again to sit. He immediately and confidently lay down.

This tells me that he can't, at this pont, differentiate between the two signals. He sees one vague signal and understands it to mean "switch to either sit or down, whichever you're not doing right now". But he does have a concept of "sit means sit", not "do the other one". I've tested that before, and did it again to make sure. I gave him the verbal cue to sit and he sat. I repeated the cue "sit" and he stayed sitting. He tensed for movement and blinked at me, but he made no motion to lie down. I reset him and repeated the test, and got the same response with two more "trick" sit cues.

This shows that he understands that if he's given a cue to sit while already sitting, he should hold the position. If he had really understood the sit and down hand signals, he would have stayed sitting when I gave a sit hand signal.

I have two options: continue training with these signals until he does clearly understand the difference, or change one of the signals. I've decided to change it to avoid the frustration and possibility of trial mishaps due to similar signals. I'm going to teach a new sit signal with my left hand, which seems to mostly bring my signals in line with the norm. In this case, I think there's a good reason that there's a tried-and-true method!

I took a video of myself (again, from Tiny Dog's perspective) doing my probable new signals. I included a come front signal this time. I still have to polish it and figure out how best to move so that Dragon can clearly see it, but I'm thinking that the common "bring arm across chest or over shoulder" will fit in well for my left arm.



In a slight segue, I'm planning on wearing a favorite black fleece vest for trials. I wear it a lot in the house (and therefore during training), and I can put it on over a sweater on cold days or just a tshirt on hot days, and show Dragon a consistent picture. My bare arms or light-colored sleeves will provide a good contrast for my arm movements. It has zippered pockets large enough for a number of treats or two small toys. If I wear it around the house and for matches and APDT rally trials it will come to mean that rewards might be pulled out of the pockets at any moment.