We had another 30 minute lesson with Denise last Thursday.
We started off by reviewing heeling. Dragon was doing fairly well. Distracted here and there, but clearly knew the point and how to move his butt to stay in position. Denise focused on fixing my handling. I still need reminders to look ahead rather than at my dog -- a very basic thing that nearly everyone has heard and yet struggles with! I am not immune. Another thing she pointed out was that I tended to speed up if he drifted away, to try to attract his attention and get him to catch up. She said that instead of becoming more interesting, I should become still and be less interesting. Heeling is fun, not running away and then coming back. She had me do more circles and loops to the left and right, and said I should do way less straight line heeling, which is boring and difficult. By having me focus more on my body rather than my dog, we took some of the pressure off him and he performed better. Wow! I know I will need more reminders about this...
I rewarded him by wrestling and having him play-bite my hands, which is his favorite game and is easily transferred to the ring environment. Denise is always happy to see this example of "personal play" between us. Confidence booster!
We switched to articles. For months now Dragon has been fluent in metal articles, as well as 100% accurate when working with plastic pens and plastic pill bottles. Yet with the leather articles, his success rate was only 50% or so -- he would guess, often not sniffing the leather rings at all, but just grabbing the first one he reached and retrieving it. I'd talked to Denise about this last time we met, and she suggested that I warm him up with the metal canning rings, then keep the context exactly the same as I switch to the leather rings. It seemed to help at first but then he reverted to guessing. I was baffled.
We went into a little, bare room Denise uses to train close in work and I brought out the leather rings. Dragon sniffed the small pile, mouthed one and carried it over to another, then picked up another, then finally brought one back. Denise commented that he moved them around so much and so quickly that she couldn't tell if it was the right one. I didn't think it was. We tried again and had the same result. At that point we were frustrated because all the articles were quickly getting contaminated and it was hard to keep them straight. So Denise brought out three of her own large, leather dumbbells and had me heavily scent one, and we put them into the same corner. Tiny Dog immediately started to sniff the scented one all over and circle it, trying to figure out how to pick up the large object. I rewarded and with some coaxing he even brought it back to me. We did it again, and again he immediately indicated the correct one and managed to bring it to me. Third time, same thing.
Clearly Dragon does understand the exercise well, but there's something about the leather rings I had made by Paco Collars that throws him off, and he can't pick up my scent properly. I couldn't believe that after all the worry over teaching him articles, this was the answer all along. All I have to do is get a different set of articles, and we should be golden!
Next Denise asked to see his stand for exam, which he did perfectly! As I turned to face him I gave him the toothy smile that I've conditioned to mean "you're on the right track, keep going and you'll get reinforcement". As soon as he saw that his ears went up and he stared at me with big eyes, body tense. He didn't even glance at Denise as she walked up, leaned over, and ran her hand down his back. He even stayed while I returned to heel position. I'm so proud! I used to expect that to be the most difficult exercise for him.
Finally we did the sit-stay with recall to front. One time Dragon stood up when I left him but he stayed correctly twice. When I called "here!" he would start running quickly toward me, but then he would veer off to sniff something part way. Like most of his ring behaviors, we need to proof this in distracting contexts.
With an extra cue, he would come to front nicely. His fronts aren't perfect yet, but they're definitely more enthusiastic and straighter than when we saw Denise last month. Teaching him a "through" finish between my legs has helped a lot. Denise said that we're allowed to use it in the ring for small dogs, since we don't have to move our feet to do it and the dog isn't interfering with our performance. That would be great, although he also does a beautiful left finish.
Overall, Denise and I were both happy to see his excitement about working with me and doing the exercises, and his knowledge of the skills. We have a lot of work ahead of us in terms of distraction training, but Denise sees no problems with taking away the food and toy rewards when we go into the ring, since he loves to wrestle-play and I can use various tricks to keep him engaged and as a reward. Tiny Dog is my first obedience dog, so I am always amazed when we're able to pull this stuff off!
Showing posts with label retrieve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retrieve. Show all posts
Monday, June 4, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Another obedience lesson with Denise Fenzi
We had a wonderful lesson last week. As always, I was proud to show off our progress, and happy to get pointers on where to go from here. Dragon was SO focused and enthusiastic. Denise commented on it many times and it felt great to work with such an eager partner. Of course, we have lots of work ahead of us to get that same focus and enthusiasm in high-distraction settings like trials!
Dragon does fairly nice fronts but he doesn't have a lot of enthusiasm, and I asked Denise for advice on creating it. She suggested that I teach him to go through my legs, turn around, and come up into heel position. This would encourage him to come in straight and close (anticipating going through the legs), break up the monotony, and create more movement and therefore fun with fronts. I've been trying it out already and Dragon thinks it's a fun trick. Score!
The other thing that I really needed her advice on was leather articles. Dragon can do metal canning rings, plastic medicine bottles, and plastic pens with consistent, nearly 100% accuracy. Yet with the leather rings, he kept guessing and bringing back random ones. Denise had us warm up with the metal rings, warm him up with a single, well-scented leather ring, and then put down one more decoy leather ring. She had us work in the corner so that I was hiding what I was doing with my body, to make him more interested. She also had me treat once in front for Dragon retrieving the correct ring, and then toss a treat away for him to chase while I reset the rings. This worked well and after some incorrect guesses Dragon suddenly started to sniff them out properly.
We repeated it at home, and after some initial frustration and confusion again, Dragon seemed to sort it out. I think I'm finally "explaining" the exercise properly to him. I'm not sure how he got mixed up with it in the first place, considering how quickly he caught on to metal and two types of plastic!
We got to show off our amazing stand for exam. I'd expected this exercise to be extremely difficult for Tiny Dog, because he gets easily initimidated by people leaning over him and reaching for him. However we progressed slowly with the foundation (again provided by Denise) and have been practicing a LOT, and he performed perfectly for her! Now to continue practicing in new environments, and with lots of men, with whom he's more shy.
The rest of the exercises to work on were suggested by Denise. Of course she had us demonstrate our heeling, and Dragon was on fire (pun intended). I hope and pray that we will someday be able to have enthusiasm like that in the ring. I didn't talk to him very much, as she pointed out during our last lesson that I talked too much and he didn't needed it. But I did give him a particular smile with my lips parted a bit, which I've been conditioning as part of a keep going signal or trigger. I give him the smile and blow air between the apex of my tongue and my hard palate, making a soft "hhiiii" noise. He already perks up when he hears it and/or sees the smile. At this point it is always followed shortly by a treat or play, but eventually it will be able to bridge longer stretches of work.
Denise set up ring gates with a break in the middle to mimic the ring entrance. She instructed me to warm Dragon up, heel into the ring, and party. I used his rubber ball for this, his #1 reward. He quickly started to pattern and forge in anticipation of the ball being thrown forward. When he forged I would slow down and rotate my left shoulder backwards, and he would hop back into position. When he was more in control of his pace, we extended the pattern so that we heeled a few extra steps before tossing the ball. One of our homework assignments is to work with ring gates or appropriate stand-ins and continue the conditioning of "passing through a gate = focused work = party!!"
We practiced the go out and jumps for the first time. Since Tiny Dog drives into his crate very well, we set it up past the jumps and I sent him to it. Then I would give him a huge signal (actually whole body movement) at one jump or the other. Since he already has high value for taking jumps on cue thanks to agility, he quickly figured out what I wanted. For homework I will teach him to target a post, stick, or similar, possibly with the help of blue painter's tape, and then turn around and sit. I've also already done a session of sending him to his sit platform and then taking a jump on cue.
We discussed my use of a non-reward marker for Dragon's loss of focus during known work (not when learning something new). I saw a quick improvement over his focus when I started using it. I think that Denise was spot-on: he did not understand that keeping attention on me and ignoring distractions was a criteria. Now he will look away if he is nervous or there is a big distraction, but he's able to ignore the little things and doesn't stop to look around as much. I'm sure that this was a big part of why he was much more focused during this lesson compared to last time. Of course I am always watching his body language to assess whether the NRM is stressing him out or simply providing useful information.
That was a lot to get done in 30 minutes! We scheduled another lesson a month away.
Dragon does fairly nice fronts but he doesn't have a lot of enthusiasm, and I asked Denise for advice on creating it. She suggested that I teach him to go through my legs, turn around, and come up into heel position. This would encourage him to come in straight and close (anticipating going through the legs), break up the monotony, and create more movement and therefore fun with fronts. I've been trying it out already and Dragon thinks it's a fun trick. Score!
The other thing that I really needed her advice on was leather articles. Dragon can do metal canning rings, plastic medicine bottles, and plastic pens with consistent, nearly 100% accuracy. Yet with the leather rings, he kept guessing and bringing back random ones. Denise had us warm up with the metal rings, warm him up with a single, well-scented leather ring, and then put down one more decoy leather ring. She had us work in the corner so that I was hiding what I was doing with my body, to make him more interested. She also had me treat once in front for Dragon retrieving the correct ring, and then toss a treat away for him to chase while I reset the rings. This worked well and after some incorrect guesses Dragon suddenly started to sniff them out properly.
We repeated it at home, and after some initial frustration and confusion again, Dragon seemed to sort it out. I think I'm finally "explaining" the exercise properly to him. I'm not sure how he got mixed up with it in the first place, considering how quickly he caught on to metal and two types of plastic!
We got to show off our amazing stand for exam. I'd expected this exercise to be extremely difficult for Tiny Dog, because he gets easily initimidated by people leaning over him and reaching for him. However we progressed slowly with the foundation (again provided by Denise) and have been practicing a LOT, and he performed perfectly for her! Now to continue practicing in new environments, and with lots of men, with whom he's more shy.
The rest of the exercises to work on were suggested by Denise. Of course she had us demonstrate our heeling, and Dragon was on fire (pun intended). I hope and pray that we will someday be able to have enthusiasm like that in the ring. I didn't talk to him very much, as she pointed out during our last lesson that I talked too much and he didn't needed it. But I did give him a particular smile with my lips parted a bit, which I've been conditioning as part of a keep going signal or trigger. I give him the smile and blow air between the apex of my tongue and my hard palate, making a soft "hhiiii" noise. He already perks up when he hears it and/or sees the smile. At this point it is always followed shortly by a treat or play, but eventually it will be able to bridge longer stretches of work.
Denise set up ring gates with a break in the middle to mimic the ring entrance. She instructed me to warm Dragon up, heel into the ring, and party. I used his rubber ball for this, his #1 reward. He quickly started to pattern and forge in anticipation of the ball being thrown forward. When he forged I would slow down and rotate my left shoulder backwards, and he would hop back into position. When he was more in control of his pace, we extended the pattern so that we heeled a few extra steps before tossing the ball. One of our homework assignments is to work with ring gates or appropriate stand-ins and continue the conditioning of "passing through a gate = focused work = party!!"
We practiced the go out and jumps for the first time. Since Tiny Dog drives into his crate very well, we set it up past the jumps and I sent him to it. Then I would give him a huge signal (actually whole body movement) at one jump or the other. Since he already has high value for taking jumps on cue thanks to agility, he quickly figured out what I wanted. For homework I will teach him to target a post, stick, or similar, possibly with the help of blue painter's tape, and then turn around and sit. I've also already done a session of sending him to his sit platform and then taking a jump on cue.
We discussed my use of a non-reward marker for Dragon's loss of focus during known work (not when learning something new). I saw a quick improvement over his focus when I started using it. I think that Denise was spot-on: he did not understand that keeping attention on me and ignoring distractions was a criteria. Now he will look away if he is nervous or there is a big distraction, but he's able to ignore the little things and doesn't stop to look around as much. I'm sure that this was a big part of why he was much more focused during this lesson compared to last time. Of course I am always watching his body language to assess whether the NRM is stressing him out or simply providing useful information.
That was a lot to get done in 30 minutes! We scheduled another lesson a month away.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Follow-up on obedience lesson with Denise Fenzi
Here's the initial report on implementing Denise's suggestions when I had a lesson with her a week ago.
The bad news first: we've regressed further with the dumbbell. We put too much pressure on Dragon during the lesson; he can be very sensitive. I tried putting the dumbbell out at a few feet away from me and I thought that he would still be okay with picking it up and I could click/treat for that. He didn't even want to put his mouth on it.
I changed tactics and decided to lighten the mood by holding the dumbbell firmly in my hand and encouraging him to play with me. He was confused but I got him to bat at my hands and push into me while I was holding it in my right hand. When he was more relaxed about the whole thing I tossed the dumbbell out farther and went back to square one: C/T for looking, for moving toward, for putting his head down toward it, for putting his mouth on it. I stopped there because I could see his anxiety increasing again.
My plan is to pull out the liver treats and reteach him the pick-up as if he didn't know it at all, and continue playing games with him while it's nearby. Crossing my fingers that it won't take us long to overcome this setback. Later I'll use a platform in front of me to encourage him to get close in and stay there as I (very, very carefully) take it. And no more practicing on wooden floors!!
In the meantime I'm working on encouraging him to bring other objects very close to me and right into my hands, rather than having to reach for them myself. Seeing quick progress on it with his toys, tennis ball, and leash tab (his first retrieve object).
Moving on, the problem with him getting up from his sits in front or at heel hasn't appeared again other than here and there when he anticipates. It's possible that I will see it again in future situations when I am more nervous. In the meantime I am occassionally extending the amount of time I expect him to told a sit and giving multiple rewards for it. Not worried about it.
Our stand for exam is continuing to improve. I've practiced setting out his tennis ball or a big treat and releasing him from a stand-stay while he's focusing on it. Then I moved on to feeling him up while he stares at it and immediately releasing him to get it. We also did three repetitions of that with my sister, whom he adores and can barely stand still for, and he did well -- the "exam" was only 1 second to keep him successful.
Other things I have decided to work on: I need to reteach the stand cue. Once he's in the stand, he's great, and he recognizes the cue in the way that I do it for agility start line stays. However his response to the stand cues (both verbal and hand signal) in front and at my side in non-agility settings has diminished. No problem, we'll just start again and be more thorough this time.
We've been working on "go and throw", as outlined in the book Agility Right From the Start. It's a simple method: line your dog up, say the word "go", and then throw a toy forward. As your dog starts to anticipate the toy being thrown and starts running ahead, you deliberately start to delay the throw so that your dog is being rewarded for running farther and farther ahead. My tossing abilities are not great, however at the park he ran forward about 10 feet confidently, which is a great foundation. This isn't just for agility -- it can also provide a good foundation for the go out in obedience.
I mentioned recently that Dragon's appetite for Primal raw food was diminished. I switched to putting it into a food tube rather than on a plate, and making a mini training session out of breakfast and dinner. This has been a phenomenal success. Not only is he eating all the raw food, but his enthusiasm for it quickly started to increase! He now comes into the kitchen and stares at me as I prep his meal. I'm even able to use it as a reward outside.
The bad news first: we've regressed further with the dumbbell. We put too much pressure on Dragon during the lesson; he can be very sensitive. I tried putting the dumbbell out at a few feet away from me and I thought that he would still be okay with picking it up and I could click/treat for that. He didn't even want to put his mouth on it.
I changed tactics and decided to lighten the mood by holding the dumbbell firmly in my hand and encouraging him to play with me. He was confused but I got him to bat at my hands and push into me while I was holding it in my right hand. When he was more relaxed about the whole thing I tossed the dumbbell out farther and went back to square one: C/T for looking, for moving toward, for putting his head down toward it, for putting his mouth on it. I stopped there because I could see his anxiety increasing again.
My plan is to pull out the liver treats and reteach him the pick-up as if he didn't know it at all, and continue playing games with him while it's nearby. Crossing my fingers that it won't take us long to overcome this setback. Later I'll use a platform in front of me to encourage him to get close in and stay there as I (very, very carefully) take it. And no more practicing on wooden floors!!
In the meantime I'm working on encouraging him to bring other objects very close to me and right into my hands, rather than having to reach for them myself. Seeing quick progress on it with his toys, tennis ball, and leash tab (his first retrieve object).
Moving on, the problem with him getting up from his sits in front or at heel hasn't appeared again other than here and there when he anticipates. It's possible that I will see it again in future situations when I am more nervous. In the meantime I am occassionally extending the amount of time I expect him to told a sit and giving multiple rewards for it. Not worried about it.
Our stand for exam is continuing to improve. I've practiced setting out his tennis ball or a big treat and releasing him from a stand-stay while he's focusing on it. Then I moved on to feeling him up while he stares at it and immediately releasing him to get it. We also did three repetitions of that with my sister, whom he adores and can barely stand still for, and he did well -- the "exam" was only 1 second to keep him successful.
Other things I have decided to work on: I need to reteach the stand cue. Once he's in the stand, he's great, and he recognizes the cue in the way that I do it for agility start line stays. However his response to the stand cues (both verbal and hand signal) in front and at my side in non-agility settings has diminished. No problem, we'll just start again and be more thorough this time.
We've been working on "go and throw", as outlined in the book Agility Right From the Start. It's a simple method: line your dog up, say the word "go", and then throw a toy forward. As your dog starts to anticipate the toy being thrown and starts running ahead, you deliberately start to delay the throw so that your dog is being rewarded for running farther and farther ahead. My tossing abilities are not great, however at the park he ran forward about 10 feet confidently, which is a great foundation. This isn't just for agility -- it can also provide a good foundation for the go out in obedience.
I mentioned recently that Dragon's appetite for Primal raw food was diminished. I switched to putting it into a food tube rather than on a plate, and making a mini training session out of breakfast and dinner. This has been a phenomenal success. Not only is he eating all the raw food, but his enthusiasm for it quickly started to increase! He now comes into the kitchen and stares at me as I prep his meal. I'm even able to use it as a reward outside.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Obedience lesson with Denise Fenzi
Last Wednesday I had a 30 minute lesson with Denise Fenzi, a competion obedience trainer who uses positive methods (a rarity in this sport). We've had a couple of lessons with her before, but nowadays most of my training budget goes to our ongoing agility lessons, so it's been a few months since I last saw her.
As usual we started with heeling, since it's so important in competition. Denise liked his turns (both left and right) and his halts. He over-rotated on the left turns, but that's because he was putting in too much effort, and that's a better problem to have than not enough effort. For the first couple of minutes I didn't use any treats or toys to reward him, I just stopped and wrestled with him -- that's a big improvement in our training since Denise last saw us. His attention was drifting a fair amount, since he wanted to sniff and explore. I blabbed at him too much. I do that when I'm nervous. She had me do some large circles to the right so that I could concentrate on my rhythm and connection to him without worrying about footwork. She cued me to alternate praise, silence, and rewards. He doesn't need me to talk to him as much as I do when I'm nervous. Instead he needs me to praise him for making an effort to focus on the work.
We talked about working around distractions or in new environments. Denise noticed that I would call him back to me when he ran off and resume work. She commented that it seemed he had no idea that running off was "wrong". She suggested I use a clear no reward marker to communicate that he shouldn't run off to greet the neighbors or check out a smell. If I have to use it more than a handful of times, then it's not effective and I need to try a different tactic. I don't use NRMs often but I think she's right that this would be the right situation for it.
I had his crate set up and I would cue him to go in when we would stop to talk. If I didn't, he would immediately wander off to explore. He needs a clear structure of "down time in crate" versus "engaged work time". No grey area in which I expect him to just hang out with me while I pet him.
We practiced fronts and the recall next. Last time I saw her, we were just laying a foundation for fronts, using my hands to guide him to sit straight and then tossing a treat between my legs for him to chase. After that we went through a phase in which he would put his front paws on my feet and/or sit pretty. I fixed this by feeding him low to keep his body lowered toward the ground, and I didn't reward the times that he put his feet on my feet. We also spent a lot of time with me pivoting in place and rewarding him for adjusting to be straight again. His fronts are looking much better in terms of the angle. Oddly, he kept standing up from the sit every time I rewarded him at Denise's, something he never does at home. It must have been because he was nervous and/or I was moving a bit differently out of nerves. Denise suggested I feed him from up high again, as it looked to her like I was cuing a stand. Also if he stood up, I would pull the treat away, and he caught on quickly to that part.
We moved on to the dumbbell. Dragon had been doing very well with this, however shortly before our lesson he had dropped the dumbbell onto the wooden floor at my parents' house, and the sound traumatized him. He associated it with coming close to me and my reaching my hand to take the dumbbell from him. The result was that during our lesson he would pick it up when I tossed it, but he didn't want to bring it in close, and he refused to take it into his mouth when I held it out for him. Denise was coaching me to hold my hands close to my body to encourage him to come in, rather than reaching my hands toward him, but each time he felt the dumbbell's weight shift as I took it he would jump back with a scared look. This was very disappointing to me. I had known that he hated the noise and motion of dropping things, but thus far I'd managed to avoid that happening with the dumbbell by carefully reaching and taking it from him. Despite all the time we'd already spent on the dumbbell, the one time he dropped it on a wooden floor outweighed the positive history.
Denise tried to help him work through his fear by kneeling down and placing the dumbbell close to her body and giving him lots of happy talk and encouragement to lean in and pick it up. He was extremely conflicted. He circled her, darting his head forward and back, he rubbed against my legs and climbed on me for support, and a few times he did mouth the dumbbell but did not pick it up fully. We gave up with that exercise.
The last exercise we did was the stand for exam, which went better than expected. I'd been practicing here and there with my coworkers, but mostly we focused on the "person approaching while dog holds a stay" rather than the actual exam. We did just a few reps with Denise approaching and then she was able to give him a light pat down while he held his stand-stay. Good dog! She recommended that I work on this by myself as well. We want him to be focusing his attention on something else besides the person touching him. Usually that "something else" is me standing just a little distance away. If I'm by myself, I can set a treat on the ground for him to focus on while I play judge.
The next lesson will be in a few weeks. I'm about to also post a follow-up of how our next handful of training sessions at home went.
As usual we started with heeling, since it's so important in competition. Denise liked his turns (both left and right) and his halts. He over-rotated on the left turns, but that's because he was putting in too much effort, and that's a better problem to have than not enough effort. For the first couple of minutes I didn't use any treats or toys to reward him, I just stopped and wrestled with him -- that's a big improvement in our training since Denise last saw us. His attention was drifting a fair amount, since he wanted to sniff and explore. I blabbed at him too much. I do that when I'm nervous. She had me do some large circles to the right so that I could concentrate on my rhythm and connection to him without worrying about footwork. She cued me to alternate praise, silence, and rewards. He doesn't need me to talk to him as much as I do when I'm nervous. Instead he needs me to praise him for making an effort to focus on the work.
We talked about working around distractions or in new environments. Denise noticed that I would call him back to me when he ran off and resume work. She commented that it seemed he had no idea that running off was "wrong". She suggested I use a clear no reward marker to communicate that he shouldn't run off to greet the neighbors or check out a smell. If I have to use it more than a handful of times, then it's not effective and I need to try a different tactic. I don't use NRMs often but I think she's right that this would be the right situation for it.
I had his crate set up and I would cue him to go in when we would stop to talk. If I didn't, he would immediately wander off to explore. He needs a clear structure of "down time in crate" versus "engaged work time". No grey area in which I expect him to just hang out with me while I pet him.
We practiced fronts and the recall next. Last time I saw her, we were just laying a foundation for fronts, using my hands to guide him to sit straight and then tossing a treat between my legs for him to chase. After that we went through a phase in which he would put his front paws on my feet and/or sit pretty. I fixed this by feeding him low to keep his body lowered toward the ground, and I didn't reward the times that he put his feet on my feet. We also spent a lot of time with me pivoting in place and rewarding him for adjusting to be straight again. His fronts are looking much better in terms of the angle. Oddly, he kept standing up from the sit every time I rewarded him at Denise's, something he never does at home. It must have been because he was nervous and/or I was moving a bit differently out of nerves. Denise suggested I feed him from up high again, as it looked to her like I was cuing a stand. Also if he stood up, I would pull the treat away, and he caught on quickly to that part.
We moved on to the dumbbell. Dragon had been doing very well with this, however shortly before our lesson he had dropped the dumbbell onto the wooden floor at my parents' house, and the sound traumatized him. He associated it with coming close to me and my reaching my hand to take the dumbbell from him. The result was that during our lesson he would pick it up when I tossed it, but he didn't want to bring it in close, and he refused to take it into his mouth when I held it out for him. Denise was coaching me to hold my hands close to my body to encourage him to come in, rather than reaching my hands toward him, but each time he felt the dumbbell's weight shift as I took it he would jump back with a scared look. This was very disappointing to me. I had known that he hated the noise and motion of dropping things, but thus far I'd managed to avoid that happening with the dumbbell by carefully reaching and taking it from him. Despite all the time we'd already spent on the dumbbell, the one time he dropped it on a wooden floor outweighed the positive history.
Denise tried to help him work through his fear by kneeling down and placing the dumbbell close to her body and giving him lots of happy talk and encouragement to lean in and pick it up. He was extremely conflicted. He circled her, darting his head forward and back, he rubbed against my legs and climbed on me for support, and a few times he did mouth the dumbbell but did not pick it up fully. We gave up with that exercise.
The last exercise we did was the stand for exam, which went better than expected. I'd been practicing here and there with my coworkers, but mostly we focused on the "person approaching while dog holds a stay" rather than the actual exam. We did just a few reps with Denise approaching and then she was able to give him a light pat down while he held his stand-stay. Good dog! She recommended that I work on this by myself as well. We want him to be focusing his attention on something else besides the person touching him. Usually that "something else" is me standing just a little distance away. If I'm by myself, I can set a treat on the ground for him to focus on while I play judge.
The next lesson will be in a few weeks. I'm about to also post a follow-up of how our next handful of training sessions at home went.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Dumbbell game
Dragon used to have a problem with picking up the dumbbell crooked in his mouth. We've been playing with burying his dumbbell in a blanket to teach him to drive down and really think about how he's picking it up. We've finally made progress!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Dumbbell sizing
After doing quite a bit of work to help Dragon learn to pick up his dumbbell straight (behind both canines, and not sticking out in front of one of them), I was concerned that he still wasn't consistently able to do it. I noticed that he was more reliable when the dumbbell was held in the air or laying on the carpet than on a hard surface, and I wondered if perhaps the bells were too short. I took a video:
And I captured some stills from the video:
Yes, it does look like he is hitting his nose against the floor as he picks it up. Poor guy! This dumbbell has bells that are 4 cm high, and the bit is 4 cm long. I have ordered a new one that is the same length but 5 cm high. Hopefully that will solve the "crooked pick-up" issue. (1 cm is a big difference when you're a tiny dog.)
And I captured some stills from the video:
Yes, it does look like he is hitting his nose against the floor as he picks it up. Poor guy! This dumbbell has bells that are 4 cm high, and the bit is 4 cm long. I have ordered a new one that is the same length but 5 cm high. Hopefully that will solve the "crooked pick-up" issue. (1 cm is a big difference when you're a tiny dog.)
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Tricks showcase for November 2011
I made another big montage of nearly all the tricks we've been working on! It's always a fun project for me, because I think about how far Dragon has come. When I made the last tricks showcase in April, he was still learning heel position by pivoting around on a bowl. Now he's doing full heeling in a semi-distracting environment, and I'm working on fixing up some of my footwork. In April I had just gotten him to retrieve a teeny little leash tab, and now he'll retrieve his harness, toys, dumbbell, metal canning rings, leather rings, pens, plastic bottles... (I love teaching retrieving!) This month also shows him at his best on the wobble board -- on a pivot eight inches off the ground, with my foot kicking the board up and down.
My favorite moments:
The pivoting right at the beginning
Stacking bowls at 1:21 (that's such a cool trick)
Trying to find the platform with his back feet at 3:44
I walk away from the wobble board and he's still tipping it at 5:00
So proud of my puppy!
My favorite moments:
The pivoting right at the beginning
Stacking bowls at 1:21 (that's such a cool trick)
Trying to find the platform with his back feet at 3:44
I walk away from the wobble board and he's still tipping it at 5:00
So proud of my puppy!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Scent discrimination with metal articles
Look what Dragon can do!
This is the foundation for a competition obedience exercise in which the dog has to retrieve one metal article among five identical ones. The correct one is the one with the owner's fresh scent on it. We are using metal canning rings. Dragon will bring back the correct one nearly 100% of the time. The "tasting" and picking up of the incorrect articles is quickly fading as he figures out the fastest way to identify the correct one.
This is my first time teaching this exercise and it's thrilling to see him do it so happily and reliably!
This is the foundation for a competition obedience exercise in which the dog has to retrieve one metal article among five identical ones. The correct one is the one with the owner's fresh scent on it. We are using metal canning rings. Dragon will bring back the correct one nearly 100% of the time. The "tasting" and picking up of the incorrect articles is quickly fading as he figures out the fastest way to identify the correct one.
This is my first time teaching this exercise and it's thrilling to see him do it so happily and reliably!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Following up on play concerns
I brought up my concern about Dragon not wanting to play with my trainer friend Elissa. She reassured me not to worry about it, and not to bother trying to get him to play until he's clearly feeling better and initiating play on his own. Otherwise I might end up altering his play style weirdly or teaching him to be worried or suspicious of playtime. So, although I'll miss it, I'll put away the toys until he shows me that he wants to play, and just use food in training. He's normally a playful dog, so in the end I should be able to get his play drive back up again.
In the meantime we're making steady progress with his obedience training. I just received a teeny plastic dumbbell in the mail and I did a session of dumbbell = liver treats, woohoo!
In the meantime we're making steady progress with his obedience training. I just received a teeny plastic dumbbell in the mail and I did a session of dumbbell = liver treats, woohoo!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Second obedience lesson with Denise Fenzi
Oh, how I love working with Denise. Her attitude puts me right at ease because she is upbeat, casual, and flexible. Her pointers are always spot-on and I end the lesson feeling like I know exactly what we should do, and energized to do it.
Last time I met her we mostly worked on heeling. We started off by reviewing heeling again, and I showed her our progress. Dragon had great position when he was paying attention, nice and close and pivoting beautifully. There was a small issue with his attention drifting. Denise had me tell him to take a break (signalling that he had lost the opportunity for reinforcement) and back up whenever he looked away. If he heeled nicely and payed attention for 3-5 seconds, then he would be paid. It can be surprisingly hard with a small dog to tell whether he's paying attention. I don't expect Dragon to look at my face the entire time because that's hard on his body, but he should be looking upwards and towards my legs. I will have to work harder to be able to recognize right away whether he's focusing or looking past my legs at something else. I'm raising my criteria and working on getting beautiful, attentive heeling before I ask for more duration.
We briefly discussed sitting at heel. I've been using a clear hand gesture/target to get him to sit nicely in position, to build up a good history of reinforcement. Denise cautioned me not to name the sit at heel. If I have to cue it, he won't do it automatically. If I wait him out and he does it and gets rewarded, then he'll learn faster to do it automatically. (When we practicing heeling on the rally course after I finished teaching class this evening, I practiced planting my right foot and shifting my weight slightly sideways as a cue to sit. He responded very well to this.)
From heeling we moved on to making training plans for all the rest of the AKC Novice exercises.
Fronts: During our last lesson, Denise had suggested that I use a front foot target and click for his butt being straight on, but he's been reinforced too much for pivoting from side to side and this was a frustrating exercise. I had decided to switch to backing up and using my hands down low to guide him in close to my legs. By now this had progressed to having my hands up higher and making an upwards motion, and Dragon would sit almost right between my feet. Then I would bend my knees outwards and throw the treat between my legs for him to chase (encourages him to get in close to my legs). Denise liked what we were doing and added that I should stop backing up when he looks at me, so that he gets to do the front and get reinforced if he's offering attention. I can also already fade the hand movement more. Once he's got that down I'll slow down my backwards movement until he's coming to front without my feet moving at all.
Stand/Sit for Exam: The Beginner Novice class has a sit for exam instead of a stand, and Denise recommended teaching that first. It's an easier behavior for the dog to be successful in, since he's less likely to shuffle his feet or move away. We used a CAT-like method to teach him to focus on me as a way to make the inherently-uncomfortable exercise end. Denise would step foward, click when Dragon looked at me, and then back away as I treated him. Build up to the scary stranger stepping forward and reaching, looming over the dog, waving stuff around, etc. I really like this method -- the dog learns that he can make the exercise end by standing still and watching the handler. It always works in the ring! Obviously you have to build it up slowly, so that the dog doesn't start breaking because he's too nervous about the stranger walking right up to him and looming over him. (Also, Denise didn't mention this, but using a stand platform would be a good way to set the dog up for success when transitioning from a sit for exam to a stand for exam.)
Retrieve: Dragon showed off his strong "bring to hand" behavior with his little leash tab. We talked about how dogs have trouble keeping items in their mouths as they sit. Butt goes down = mouth opens up. She liked that I'd been working on having Dragon do other tricks while holding onto his tab, and brought up using a platform, which was also on my to-do list once he was more solid with standing squarely on his new, narrow platform. We did practice with a large platform she had on hand, and lo and behold, Dragon was able to pick up the tab, get on the platform in front of me, and promptly sit with the tab in his mouth. Platforms are magic.
I need to order a dumbbell.
Broad Jump: I need to get some white boards to practice this. We did some jumping with her practice set, and I cued "hup" like I do for agility jumps, and he had no trouble with it. She recommended teaching him to go out to a target after jumping, and also putting a block by the corner of the broad jump to prevent the dog from learning to take shortcuts in training.
Stays: We ran out of time to practice but I said that his stays are great, in many different environments. I need to start practicing them with other dogs around. This will be easy if I remember to do it at work, where there is no shortage of both trained dogs who will hold their stays and green dogs who will be squirmy and break stays, for proofing.
I was amazed to realize how everything is coming together so well. I feel like we have a good foundation going.
Last time I met her we mostly worked on heeling. We started off by reviewing heeling again, and I showed her our progress. Dragon had great position when he was paying attention, nice and close and pivoting beautifully. There was a small issue with his attention drifting. Denise had me tell him to take a break (signalling that he had lost the opportunity for reinforcement) and back up whenever he looked away. If he heeled nicely and payed attention for 3-5 seconds, then he would be paid. It can be surprisingly hard with a small dog to tell whether he's paying attention. I don't expect Dragon to look at my face the entire time because that's hard on his body, but he should be looking upwards and towards my legs. I will have to work harder to be able to recognize right away whether he's focusing or looking past my legs at something else. I'm raising my criteria and working on getting beautiful, attentive heeling before I ask for more duration.
We briefly discussed sitting at heel. I've been using a clear hand gesture/target to get him to sit nicely in position, to build up a good history of reinforcement. Denise cautioned me not to name the sit at heel. If I have to cue it, he won't do it automatically. If I wait him out and he does it and gets rewarded, then he'll learn faster to do it automatically. (When we practicing heeling on the rally course after I finished teaching class this evening, I practiced planting my right foot and shifting my weight slightly sideways as a cue to sit. He responded very well to this.)
From heeling we moved on to making training plans for all the rest of the AKC Novice exercises.
Fronts: During our last lesson, Denise had suggested that I use a front foot target and click for his butt being straight on, but he's been reinforced too much for pivoting from side to side and this was a frustrating exercise. I had decided to switch to backing up and using my hands down low to guide him in close to my legs. By now this had progressed to having my hands up higher and making an upwards motion, and Dragon would sit almost right between my feet. Then I would bend my knees outwards and throw the treat between my legs for him to chase (encourages him to get in close to my legs). Denise liked what we were doing and added that I should stop backing up when he looks at me, so that he gets to do the front and get reinforced if he's offering attention. I can also already fade the hand movement more. Once he's got that down I'll slow down my backwards movement until he's coming to front without my feet moving at all.
Stand/Sit for Exam: The Beginner Novice class has a sit for exam instead of a stand, and Denise recommended teaching that first. It's an easier behavior for the dog to be successful in, since he's less likely to shuffle his feet or move away. We used a CAT-like method to teach him to focus on me as a way to make the inherently-uncomfortable exercise end. Denise would step foward, click when Dragon looked at me, and then back away as I treated him. Build up to the scary stranger stepping forward and reaching, looming over the dog, waving stuff around, etc. I really like this method -- the dog learns that he can make the exercise end by standing still and watching the handler. It always works in the ring! Obviously you have to build it up slowly, so that the dog doesn't start breaking because he's too nervous about the stranger walking right up to him and looming over him. (Also, Denise didn't mention this, but using a stand platform would be a good way to set the dog up for success when transitioning from a sit for exam to a stand for exam.)
Retrieve: Dragon showed off his strong "bring to hand" behavior with his little leash tab. We talked about how dogs have trouble keeping items in their mouths as they sit. Butt goes down = mouth opens up. She liked that I'd been working on having Dragon do other tricks while holding onto his tab, and brought up using a platform, which was also on my to-do list once he was more solid with standing squarely on his new, narrow platform. We did practice with a large platform she had on hand, and lo and behold, Dragon was able to pick up the tab, get on the platform in front of me, and promptly sit with the tab in his mouth. Platforms are magic.
I need to order a dumbbell.
Broad Jump: I need to get some white boards to practice this. We did some jumping with her practice set, and I cued "hup" like I do for agility jumps, and he had no trouble with it. She recommended teaching him to go out to a target after jumping, and also putting a block by the corner of the broad jump to prevent the dog from learning to take shortcuts in training.
Stays: We ran out of time to practice but I said that his stays are great, in many different environments. I need to start practicing them with other dogs around. This will be easy if I remember to do it at work, where there is no shortage of both trained dogs who will hold their stays and green dogs who will be squirmy and break stays, for proofing.
I was amazed to realize how everything is coming together so well. I feel like we have a good foundation going.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Multi-tasking success!
I just got Dragon to take his little leash tab (his strongest retrieve item) into his mouth and sit and hold it!! Twice, even!! I'm over the moon!
For about five sessions now we've been working on what I call "multi-tasking" -- he had to both hold the leash tab in his mouth and do another trick at the same time. I started off combining tricks that would be easy, such as walking over low poles on the ground, or following my hand around. When he could do that we switched to tricks that were slightly more complex, but had a strong reinforcement history and he knew them well. (Examples are spinning in both directions and leg weaves.) Last session I finally asked him to sit while holding it, and the first couple of times he dropped the tab and then sat. Then he was able to hold it while starting to sit, but I had a feeling that he would immediately spit it out so I clicked as he was starting to make the motion.
This session I used his ball as a reward to keep his motivation high. He was able to hold the tab for two full seconds while sitting and looking at me.
He doesn't know how to do a front yet (er, it's on the to-do list). For now I'll continue asking for other tricks while holding, interspersed with asking him to sit for slightly longer periods of time. When he's solid on that, I'll add in the element of distraction -- moving my hands around and towards the tab.
Sooo excited.
For about five sessions now we've been working on what I call "multi-tasking" -- he had to both hold the leash tab in his mouth and do another trick at the same time. I started off combining tricks that would be easy, such as walking over low poles on the ground, or following my hand around. When he could do that we switched to tricks that were slightly more complex, but had a strong reinforcement history and he knew them well. (Examples are spinning in both directions and leg weaves.) Last session I finally asked him to sit while holding it, and the first couple of times he dropped the tab and then sat. Then he was able to hold it while starting to sit, but I had a feeling that he would immediately spit it out so I clicked as he was starting to make the motion.
This session I used his ball as a reward to keep his motivation high. He was able to hold the tab for two full seconds while sitting and looking at me.
He doesn't know how to do a front yet (er, it's on the to-do list). For now I'll continue asking for other tricks while holding, interspersed with asking him to sit for slightly longer periods of time. When he's solid on that, I'll add in the element of distraction -- moving my hands around and towards the tab.
Sooo excited.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Michele Pouliot seminar: Achieving Maximum Performance with your Dog
Last weekend we had a working spot in another seminar. Michele Pouliot is a successful freestyle competitor and instructor, and her specialty is using platforms to jump-start behaviors. In fact, something she emphasized over and over during the seminar was setting up the environment/training session so that the dog could quickly figure out the correct behavior and get lots of successful reps in right away. She also emphasized what she calls "clean training" -- having your treats already broken up into small pieces, having them hidden in your pocket and not in an obvious bait bag, having a plan of action before you start, and getting everything else that's needed (ie platforms, targets, music) set up before you start. Have a clear cue that tells the dog when he's working and when he's not. Afterwards do a self-assessment and figure out if you need to improve your handling, mechanical skills, or plan of action. And, of course, have fun!
The working dogs got to spend plenty of time on the floor. I found that initially Dragon would turn to me and happily do a few behaviors, but after a few minutes he started getting more distracted. That tells me that when we're out and about, we need to keep our sessions short, but as time goes on I need to start pushing his limits a bit. Right now, if we're in a highly distracting environment such as the dog park or the woods, I only ask for 1-5 behaviors at a time. Each training moment only lasts up to 20 seconds. Asking him to work for 5-10 minutes among a number of other dogs and handlers was too much of a challenge, even when it was interspersed with breaks to let him look around. That said, he didn't shut down or blow me off, he was just not 100% focused and frequently looked away and had to be called back. Overall it was a good experience for him, but in the future I'll be more careful to not push him that much so we can really build on success.
We spent most of Saturday talking about the basics of good training, which I found very helpful to review. For example, I may have taught Dragon a number of tricks, but most of them have clear contextual clues, and very few (possibly even none) are truly on a verbal cue. It's something that I've neglected to work on, and I hadn't even realized it. Oops!
We talked about using the leash as a positive training tool -- teaching the dog to move away from the pressure when he feels a light tension from the leash or light pressure from a hand. These can be used to guide a dog into position. She has a cool way to use light lines draped across a dog's sides to cue side passes and other complex movements.
At the beginning of the day Dragon whined in his crate for a minute or so when he was put away, but by the end he was tired and would just go to sleep. The same thing happened on the second day. I didn't cover his crate this time since my chair was close to it.
We discussed teaching attention as a behavior in itself, and not a criteria of something else such as heeling. There are two schools of thought on this. Denise Fenzi doesn't teach a "watch" cue because dogs naturally tend to watch their handlers if the training is fun and engaging for the dog. Michele teaches it and practices just getting attention in many environments, believing that a behavior that is fluent at home will be just as fluent in a distracting environment if the dog is able to focus and watch his handler. Personally I have decided to teach Dragon to watch me. Today we were practicing heeling after my rally class was over. At the end I had him sit at heel for a while, and I realized that he rarely looked up at me to check in. If I had moved forward he would have started heeling with me, but with a delayed response. Does this mean that the training session was simply not fun enough for him, or the distraction level was too high? Perhaps, but I feel that spending some time reinforcing attention will help him be more successful, and it certainly can't hurt. I will split teaching attention with the "give me a break" and "look at that" games from Control Unleashed so that he has a chance to check out his environment without conflict.
We moved on to Michele's signature platform training. For Tiny Dog, my platform size has very little wiggle room -- it needs to be just wide enough for him to comfortably stand on it with all four feet, but only when he's aligned straight on it. Today I made one by cutting up an old phone book and wrapping it in duct tape. His default behavior is to stand on it and look at me. Later I will make a separate, more square platform of a different color for which the default behavior will be sitting in a tuck sit.
I was impressed by all the behaviors that can be jump-started with a platform. The dog can line up in heel or side position with the handler already standing straight, with their arm along their stomach -- no need to twist around to lure the dog into position, which turns the shoulders the wrong way. The dog can also line up in front and get reinforcement with the correct head-on alignment. Along the same line as that, you can have the dog wait across the room or at a funny angle and then call them into heel or side or front, and they'll figure out how to twist their bodies to line up properly on the platform and along your side. They can be used to teach very tight spins, and paw waves without moving forward. (We worked on paw waves at the seminar, and Dragon made very quick progress!) They allow rapid distance training, such as for a go out in obedience, or doing freestyle tricks across the ring. Two platforms on either side can be used to teach the dog to pass in front or behind you or between your legs to switch sides. Another neat freestyle move is teaching the dog to line up in front, but facing away from you. Okay, okay, this list is long enough. I'm sold on the idea; platforms can be extremely useful!
At the end of the day we had some extra time for Michele to talk about anything the audience wanted, and someone asked about a clicker-trained retrieve. She said that in her experience many dogs do not like retrieving a dumbbell even if it was positively trained, and some stress when they are asked to take something into their mouth. Ding-ding-ding, bells went off in my head. So I'm not crazy or doing anything horribly wrong when I'm seeing Dragon shut down when trying to teach him to take and hold! That took such a weight off my shoulders. That doesn't meant that we can't work through the issue, but I'm relieved that even someone as successful as Michele has seen this happen with dogs she's trained. (By the way, so far my tactic of delaying the lowering of my hand is helping.)
We moved on to the topic of getting ring-ready, and Michele stressed the importance of practicing your ring entry routine. Jackpot your dog right at the start of your routine, to classically condition the ring entry as an exciting moment. Routines that start poorly rarely get better as the performance continues. Also make sure to prepare your dog for the audience bursting into applause at the end or even during your routine.
There was another papillon at the workshop and Dragon was super distracted every time he caught sight of it. Otherwise he didn't try to greet the other dogs too much. He's not usually allowed to do so when he's on leash, and my consistency with this allowed us to move through tight hallways without him stopping to try to sniff butts. What a good boy.
If you enjoy teaching tricks and want to get a positive-training perspective on preparing for competition (in any sport), I highly recommend Michele Pouliot's seminars.
The working dogs got to spend plenty of time on the floor. I found that initially Dragon would turn to me and happily do a few behaviors, but after a few minutes he started getting more distracted. That tells me that when we're out and about, we need to keep our sessions short, but as time goes on I need to start pushing his limits a bit. Right now, if we're in a highly distracting environment such as the dog park or the woods, I only ask for 1-5 behaviors at a time. Each training moment only lasts up to 20 seconds. Asking him to work for 5-10 minutes among a number of other dogs and handlers was too much of a challenge, even when it was interspersed with breaks to let him look around. That said, he didn't shut down or blow me off, he was just not 100% focused and frequently looked away and had to be called back. Overall it was a good experience for him, but in the future I'll be more careful to not push him that much so we can really build on success.
We spent most of Saturday talking about the basics of good training, which I found very helpful to review. For example, I may have taught Dragon a number of tricks, but most of them have clear contextual clues, and very few (possibly even none) are truly on a verbal cue. It's something that I've neglected to work on, and I hadn't even realized it. Oops!
We talked about using the leash as a positive training tool -- teaching the dog to move away from the pressure when he feels a light tension from the leash or light pressure from a hand. These can be used to guide a dog into position. She has a cool way to use light lines draped across a dog's sides to cue side passes and other complex movements.
At the beginning of the day Dragon whined in his crate for a minute or so when he was put away, but by the end he was tired and would just go to sleep. The same thing happened on the second day. I didn't cover his crate this time since my chair was close to it.
We discussed teaching attention as a behavior in itself, and not a criteria of something else such as heeling. There are two schools of thought on this. Denise Fenzi doesn't teach a "watch" cue because dogs naturally tend to watch their handlers if the training is fun and engaging for the dog. Michele teaches it and practices just getting attention in many environments, believing that a behavior that is fluent at home will be just as fluent in a distracting environment if the dog is able to focus and watch his handler. Personally I have decided to teach Dragon to watch me. Today we were practicing heeling after my rally class was over. At the end I had him sit at heel for a while, and I realized that he rarely looked up at me to check in. If I had moved forward he would have started heeling with me, but with a delayed response. Does this mean that the training session was simply not fun enough for him, or the distraction level was too high? Perhaps, but I feel that spending some time reinforcing attention will help him be more successful, and it certainly can't hurt. I will split teaching attention with the "give me a break" and "look at that" games from Control Unleashed so that he has a chance to check out his environment without conflict.
We moved on to Michele's signature platform training. For Tiny Dog, my platform size has very little wiggle room -- it needs to be just wide enough for him to comfortably stand on it with all four feet, but only when he's aligned straight on it. Today I made one by cutting up an old phone book and wrapping it in duct tape. His default behavior is to stand on it and look at me. Later I will make a separate, more square platform of a different color for which the default behavior will be sitting in a tuck sit.
I was impressed by all the behaviors that can be jump-started with a platform. The dog can line up in heel or side position with the handler already standing straight, with their arm along their stomach -- no need to twist around to lure the dog into position, which turns the shoulders the wrong way. The dog can also line up in front and get reinforcement with the correct head-on alignment. Along the same line as that, you can have the dog wait across the room or at a funny angle and then call them into heel or side or front, and they'll figure out how to twist their bodies to line up properly on the platform and along your side. They can be used to teach very tight spins, and paw waves without moving forward. (We worked on paw waves at the seminar, and Dragon made very quick progress!) They allow rapid distance training, such as for a go out in obedience, or doing freestyle tricks across the ring. Two platforms on either side can be used to teach the dog to pass in front or behind you or between your legs to switch sides. Another neat freestyle move is teaching the dog to line up in front, but facing away from you. Okay, okay, this list is long enough. I'm sold on the idea; platforms can be extremely useful!
At the end of the day we had some extra time for Michele to talk about anything the audience wanted, and someone asked about a clicker-trained retrieve. She said that in her experience many dogs do not like retrieving a dumbbell even if it was positively trained, and some stress when they are asked to take something into their mouth. Ding-ding-ding, bells went off in my head. So I'm not crazy or doing anything horribly wrong when I'm seeing Dragon shut down when trying to teach him to take and hold! That took such a weight off my shoulders. That doesn't meant that we can't work through the issue, but I'm relieved that even someone as successful as Michele has seen this happen with dogs she's trained. (By the way, so far my tactic of delaying the lowering of my hand is helping.)
We moved on to the topic of getting ring-ready, and Michele stressed the importance of practicing your ring entry routine. Jackpot your dog right at the start of your routine, to classically condition the ring entry as an exciting moment. Routines that start poorly rarely get better as the performance continues. Also make sure to prepare your dog for the audience bursting into applause at the end or even during your routine.
There was another papillon at the workshop and Dragon was super distracted every time he caught sight of it. Otherwise he didn't try to greet the other dogs too much. He's not usually allowed to do so when he's on leash, and my consistency with this allowed us to move through tight hallways without him stopping to try to sniff butts. What a good boy.
If you enjoy teaching tricks and want to get a positive-training perspective on preparing for competition (in any sport), I highly recommend Michele Pouliot's seminars.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
some new tricks
We got up at 6:30 this morning to get ready for a morning agility lesson with Moe. Unfortunately the lesson had to be cancelled at the last minute due to impending storms. Dragon was awake and feeling playful so we played tug and then did some training.
We did our second session of teaching him to put objects (his toys, currently) into a container (large plastic bowl). During the first session he was hesistant about holding his head directly over the large bowl. I was holding my hand above the bowl as a target and he was putting the toy into my hand. Then I would drop the toy into the bowl so that he would be used to the motion in the final behavior. Today he had no problem putting his head over the edge and dropping his toys directly into the bowl. At the end, when I told him to take a break, he even pulled a toy out, poked at it a bit, and then put it back into the bowl! I used plush toys so that they wouldn't make any noise, which would greatly increase the difficulty level for him. I'm teaching him this behavior for a few reasons: 1) it's a useful "service dog" type trick, especially when it's expanded to a more general concept of "carry item X to Y and place it there or perform another behavior," and I enjoy both teaching those tricks and having a dog who can perform real work, 2) it's another way to help him past his noise and motion sensitivities, and 3) it's adorable and impresses people, and really, that in itself would be a good enough reason, right?
Another new trick we're working on is jumping through a hoop. Currently I'm having him walk through it while it's an inch above the ground and I'm wiggling it back and forth a bit, so that he'll be comfortable with it moving a bit while in the air. Since he's already comfortable doing bar jumps, my next step is to get the behavior I want by setting a low bar jump and putting the hoop over the bar.
After the training session I went back to bed for an hour, and let Dragon sleep on the bed with me. He was sooo happy.
We did our second session of teaching him to put objects (his toys, currently) into a container (large plastic bowl). During the first session he was hesistant about holding his head directly over the large bowl. I was holding my hand above the bowl as a target and he was putting the toy into my hand. Then I would drop the toy into the bowl so that he would be used to the motion in the final behavior. Today he had no problem putting his head over the edge and dropping his toys directly into the bowl. At the end, when I told him to take a break, he even pulled a toy out, poked at it a bit, and then put it back into the bowl! I used plush toys so that they wouldn't make any noise, which would greatly increase the difficulty level for him. I'm teaching him this behavior for a few reasons: 1) it's a useful "service dog" type trick, especially when it's expanded to a more general concept of "carry item X to Y and place it there or perform another behavior," and I enjoy both teaching those tricks and having a dog who can perform real work, 2) it's another way to help him past his noise and motion sensitivities, and 3) it's adorable and impresses people, and really, that in itself would be a good enough reason, right?
Another new trick we're working on is jumping through a hoop. Currently I'm having him walk through it while it's an inch above the ground and I'm wiggling it back and forth a bit, so that he'll be comfortable with it moving a bit while in the air. Since he's already comfortable doing bar jumps, my next step is to get the behavior I want by setting a low bar jump and putting the hoop over the bar.
After the training session I went back to bed for an hour, and let Dragon sleep on the bed with me. He was sooo happy.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Denise Fenzi seminar: Drives and Motivation, day 1
Denise Fenzi is a top-notch, force-free, local competition obedience trainer. My friend Crystal had a working spot for this same seminar in Minnesota a few months back, and she was thrilled with the progress she's made with her dog Maisy since then, so I decided to also sign up for a working spot. The focus of the seminar is on building your dog's interest in playing with the handler, both with and without toys, and taking advantage of that in training and competition. This was Dragon's first seminar, and he's only been asked to work/play around other dogs in a handful of places, so I expected him to be nervous about it. Turned out that I needn't have worried!
Initially Denise asked us to potty the dogs, and then stand still and watch them. We were to read their body language and judge what kind of dog we had in that moment. Was the dog tense and nervous about his surroundings? Was he curious and eager to explore? Was he tuned into the handler, and wanting to engage in work or play?
Dragon was most interested in exploring the environment. He wanted to watch the other dogs and the people to gather information on them, and he sniffed the ground, though with perked-up ears and tail and a relaxed body, which was how I knew that it was curious-sniffing and not stress-sniffing. I let him potty and gather information for a minute. (And he had already walked around and sniffed for 15 minutes before the seminar started.) When it was time to play, he was willing to immediately engage and wrestle with my hands. Denise liked that I started off playing with Dragon without toys (she calls it "personal play") and then switched to his tennis ball-tug. Since the ball is his very favorite toy, we want to start with the lower-value play first, because it's much harder to switch from the #1 bestest play to the #2 than vice-versa. He was willing to drop the ball into my hand on cue. He brought it back to me when I threw it or let him "win" the game of tug, but the return was a bit slow. She advised me to do more throws of the toy in one direction and then running in the opposite direction as soon as he picks up the toy, to encourage speedy returns. We should also practice switching back and forth between the two play styles more often, to make it easier to substitute one for the other when needed.
Later in the day, after he'd been crated for a longer period of time and I asked him to play without letting him look around and gather information again, he was not able to focus on me. Good information for me, and tomorrow I'll make sure to always give him that opportunity.
Unfortunately he would cry in his crate every time I put him away. Poor guy. He would settle down after 5-10 minutes most of the time. He was better when I covered the door with my coat.
Denise gave us many wonderful tips to help us understand how dogs play, how it is based on the predatory sequence, and how to get our dogs to play with us. Here are some tidbits:
- The drives you use are the ones you build. If you've only ever rewarded your dog with treats, you'll have a hard time switching to using play as a reward.
- Different dogs will be most interested in different aspects of the "hunt" or prey sequence. Some dogs love to chase but don't care about catching and possessing the toy. Some like the "fight" of biting down and trying to pull the toy away when tugging. For others it's all about possession. Dragon used to be more into the possession part -- he would take his toys away and chew on them, or if he had a ball, he would roll it around and play with it all on his own. I've put plenty of effort into building his tug drive and teaching him to bring the toy back to me, so I've transferred more value to the "fight."
- 8 week old puppies have abnormally high food drive because they've been fighting with their littermates for their food. Often resource guarding seen at this age fades away once the puppy is given ample resources in his new home.
- Start playing tug when your dog is a puppy (if you have him at that age) and maintain that skill into adulthood. All puppies play, whereas it's harder to teach an adult to play.
- Use the correct tug toy -- an underconfident dog just learning how to play does better with long, floppy, soft toys with real fur, whereas Denise's dogs are used to tugging hard on short, rigid, tough tugs.
- Use the opposition reflex. Don't push the toy into the dog's mouth or slow down as the dog is getting close. Use constant tension and motion. The toy should act like a rabbit trying to escape a predator.
There was lots more info, of course!
I bought two toys from Denise. One was a real rabbit fur tug on a long rope, that I knew would be a sure-fire hit. The other was an eight-inch, thin, round tug made from a soft wool-like fabric and stuffed so that it held its shape but had some give when bitten onto. I wasn't sure that he would be interested in this one right away, but I had a hunch that I'd be able to build drive for it. We tried it out at home and played the longest game of tug ever. Initially he didn't know how to bite down on it the best way to keep hold, but every time he lost his grip I would whip the toy away and make him do a trick to get it back. But it wouldn't come straight back -- it would dance around on the floor and run away from him and he had to work to catch it. After about five reps he clamped down hard on it. He liked it when I would partially let go of the toy, as if he had ripped it from my hands, and when I moved toward him as if he were yanking me off my feet and winning the game. I also tried letting him win full possession of the toy, but that actually put a damper on the game. He would bring it back but very slowly. Usually he's faster; maybe he was unsure since it was a brand new toy? Also I didn't have room to run away from him and encourage chasing. We'll work on that. In the meantime I am thrilled with the toy! The game was so long because I was waiting for him to "mess up" and lose grip on the toy one last time before I ended the fun, and it's like he read my mind!
We're looking forward to Day 2, in which we'll discuss play without toys again, and getting ready for competition!
Initially Denise asked us to potty the dogs, and then stand still and watch them. We were to read their body language and judge what kind of dog we had in that moment. Was the dog tense and nervous about his surroundings? Was he curious and eager to explore? Was he tuned into the handler, and wanting to engage in work or play?
Dragon was most interested in exploring the environment. He wanted to watch the other dogs and the people to gather information on them, and he sniffed the ground, though with perked-up ears and tail and a relaxed body, which was how I knew that it was curious-sniffing and not stress-sniffing. I let him potty and gather information for a minute. (And he had already walked around and sniffed for 15 minutes before the seminar started.) When it was time to play, he was willing to immediately engage and wrestle with my hands. Denise liked that I started off playing with Dragon without toys (she calls it "personal play") and then switched to his tennis ball-tug. Since the ball is his very favorite toy, we want to start with the lower-value play first, because it's much harder to switch from the #1 bestest play to the #2 than vice-versa. He was willing to drop the ball into my hand on cue. He brought it back to me when I threw it or let him "win" the game of tug, but the return was a bit slow. She advised me to do more throws of the toy in one direction and then running in the opposite direction as soon as he picks up the toy, to encourage speedy returns. We should also practice switching back and forth between the two play styles more often, to make it easier to substitute one for the other when needed.
Later in the day, after he'd been crated for a longer period of time and I asked him to play without letting him look around and gather information again, he was not able to focus on me. Good information for me, and tomorrow I'll make sure to always give him that opportunity.
Unfortunately he would cry in his crate every time I put him away. Poor guy. He would settle down after 5-10 minutes most of the time. He was better when I covered the door with my coat.
Denise gave us many wonderful tips to help us understand how dogs play, how it is based on the predatory sequence, and how to get our dogs to play with us. Here are some tidbits:
- The drives you use are the ones you build. If you've only ever rewarded your dog with treats, you'll have a hard time switching to using play as a reward.
- Different dogs will be most interested in different aspects of the "hunt" or prey sequence. Some dogs love to chase but don't care about catching and possessing the toy. Some like the "fight" of biting down and trying to pull the toy away when tugging. For others it's all about possession. Dragon used to be more into the possession part -- he would take his toys away and chew on them, or if he had a ball, he would roll it around and play with it all on his own. I've put plenty of effort into building his tug drive and teaching him to bring the toy back to me, so I've transferred more value to the "fight."
- 8 week old puppies have abnormally high food drive because they've been fighting with their littermates for their food. Often resource guarding seen at this age fades away once the puppy is given ample resources in his new home.
- Start playing tug when your dog is a puppy (if you have him at that age) and maintain that skill into adulthood. All puppies play, whereas it's harder to teach an adult to play.
- Use the correct tug toy -- an underconfident dog just learning how to play does better with long, floppy, soft toys with real fur, whereas Denise's dogs are used to tugging hard on short, rigid, tough tugs.
- Use the opposition reflex. Don't push the toy into the dog's mouth or slow down as the dog is getting close. Use constant tension and motion. The toy should act like a rabbit trying to escape a predator.
There was lots more info, of course!
I bought two toys from Denise. One was a real rabbit fur tug on a long rope, that I knew would be a sure-fire hit. The other was an eight-inch, thin, round tug made from a soft wool-like fabric and stuffed so that it held its shape but had some give when bitten onto. I wasn't sure that he would be interested in this one right away, but I had a hunch that I'd be able to build drive for it. We tried it out at home and played the longest game of tug ever. Initially he didn't know how to bite down on it the best way to keep hold, but every time he lost his grip I would whip the toy away and make him do a trick to get it back. But it wouldn't come straight back -- it would dance around on the floor and run away from him and he had to work to catch it. After about five reps he clamped down hard on it. He liked it when I would partially let go of the toy, as if he had ripped it from my hands, and when I moved toward him as if he were yanking me off my feet and winning the game. I also tried letting him win full possession of the toy, but that actually put a damper on the game. He would bring it back but very slowly. Usually he's faster; maybe he was unsure since it was a brand new toy? Also I didn't have room to run away from him and encourage chasing. We'll work on that. In the meantime I am thrilled with the toy! The game was so long because I was waiting for him to "mess up" and lose grip on the toy one last time before I ended the fun, and it's like he read my mind!
We're looking forward to Day 2, in which we'll discuss play without toys again, and getting ready for competition!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
jaw update, and different ways of training a retrieve
I don't think that Dragon's aversion to holding a plastic tube in his mouth is due to physical pain after all (or, if it is, it's only a small factor). I think that he was actually shutting down because he didn't understand the exercise. I came to this conclusion after watching him carefully during play and training and checking in multiple times with my awesome, intuitive boss. I thought back on previous times that Dragon had been reluctant or completely shut down during training. He's a "soft" dog -- if he feels overwhelmed by the environment or training set-up, or he's confused about what he should do, or if I try to push him to do something he's not comfortable with, he stops being operant and displays stress signals, or he leaves and finds something to chew on instead of training. I have to be quite careful to keep training sessions short, with lots of encouragement, and most importantly, have to raise my expectations/criteria in baby steps, and only when he has a clear understanding of his job.
The last part is what has been biting me in the butt sometimes. I think that I'm raising criteria only a tiny amount, and he should be able to succeed, but when he doesn't understand what's happening he shuts down even with a high rate of reinforcement. For example, I was trying to train him to hold onto a plastic tube by initially clicking/treating for taking hold of it, then for taking hold of it behind his canines and not farther forward or back in his mouth, and then for holding it just a fraction of a second longer. But the idea of "sit still while holding something in your mouth" is not currently in Dragon's repertoire -- he was sure that he was supposed to be doing something. He was confused and frustrated because he didn't understand why he was getting the click sometimes and not other times. The high rate of reinforcement was not enough to override it, and so he spit out the tube and left the training session.
At least, that's my analysis. I can't know what really went through his head. But based on what I know about him, and the insight of my boss (who has plenty of experience with soft, stressy dogs), it's my best guess.
Now, similar moments of confusion happen all the time when a dog is being shaped to perform a new behavior. It's important to minimize frustration and confusion by keeping sessions short and upbeat and of course raise criteria slowly. But beyond that, I think the problem was that this was just a concept that was hard for Dragon to grasp, just like some people are better able to understand spatial reasoning or language arts than mathematics.
My solution is to change the way I'm trying to teach Dragon this skill, and hopefully find a way that will make more sense to him. He already has a strong "bring to hand" behavior (in fact, I think the strong reinforcement history for moving and targeting when he takes something into his mouth was part of the problem in understanding the new criteria of "just hold it"). So now instead of holding my hand out to him as a clear target on his way to me with an object, I am sometimes keeping it up and then lowering it once he's closer. Sometimes I lower it more slowly than other times. My goal is to start lowering my hand more and more slowly until he is effectively standing still with the item in his mouth and waiting. Then I will start waiting to lower my hand at all until he has stopped in front of me and is waiting and holding.
If this doesn't work, another method I've read about is teaching a dog to place his lower jaw onto a person's palm, and teach them to grab a dumbbell/retrieve object, and then to combine the two behaviors. Dragon does not currently have a duraction contact behavior with his nose or mouth, so this method would involve more new skill sets for him, and that's why I'm not using it as my first choice. Down the line, of course, it would be nice to teach him a chin target.
Eventually, for a formal retrieve, I'll also need to teach him to sit in front while holding onto an object, but I'm not worrying about that yet.
Other aspects of retrieving that we have been working on:
- reaching underneath or into a small space to reach the retrieve object
- reaching up high to reach the object, especially pulling something down (this is quite difficult for Dragon because sudden falling motions scare him)
- pulling something out of a box or over a barrier (speaking of spatial reasoning, this is helping him to develop it!)
- retrieving larger, heavier, or awkwardly shaped objects
- retrieving objects by name (inspired by Dr. Irene Pepperberg and her work with Alex, I'm starting off by trying to teach him the names "ball" for his orange floaty ball and "sock" for his sock tug, next items will probably be "stick" and "hoof" for his pig hoof)
My eventual goal is to have both a formal retrieve for the obedience ring as well as a useful service dog-type retrieve of named objects. I can't explain why but retrieving is something that I really love training with the clicker, and all these variations on the behavior keep the training new and engaging for both of us.
The last part is what has been biting me in the butt sometimes. I think that I'm raising criteria only a tiny amount, and he should be able to succeed, but when he doesn't understand what's happening he shuts down even with a high rate of reinforcement. For example, I was trying to train him to hold onto a plastic tube by initially clicking/treating for taking hold of it, then for taking hold of it behind his canines and not farther forward or back in his mouth, and then for holding it just a fraction of a second longer. But the idea of "sit still while holding something in your mouth" is not currently in Dragon's repertoire -- he was sure that he was supposed to be doing something. He was confused and frustrated because he didn't understand why he was getting the click sometimes and not other times. The high rate of reinforcement was not enough to override it, and so he spit out the tube and left the training session.
At least, that's my analysis. I can't know what really went through his head. But based on what I know about him, and the insight of my boss (who has plenty of experience with soft, stressy dogs), it's my best guess.
Now, similar moments of confusion happen all the time when a dog is being shaped to perform a new behavior. It's important to minimize frustration and confusion by keeping sessions short and upbeat and of course raise criteria slowly. But beyond that, I think the problem was that this was just a concept that was hard for Dragon to grasp, just like some people are better able to understand spatial reasoning or language arts than mathematics.
My solution is to change the way I'm trying to teach Dragon this skill, and hopefully find a way that will make more sense to him. He already has a strong "bring to hand" behavior (in fact, I think the strong reinforcement history for moving and targeting when he takes something into his mouth was part of the problem in understanding the new criteria of "just hold it"). So now instead of holding my hand out to him as a clear target on his way to me with an object, I am sometimes keeping it up and then lowering it once he's closer. Sometimes I lower it more slowly than other times. My goal is to start lowering my hand more and more slowly until he is effectively standing still with the item in his mouth and waiting. Then I will start waiting to lower my hand at all until he has stopped in front of me and is waiting and holding.
If this doesn't work, another method I've read about is teaching a dog to place his lower jaw onto a person's palm, and teach them to grab a dumbbell/retrieve object, and then to combine the two behaviors. Dragon does not currently have a duraction contact behavior with his nose or mouth, so this method would involve more new skill sets for him, and that's why I'm not using it as my first choice. Down the line, of course, it would be nice to teach him a chin target.
Eventually, for a formal retrieve, I'll also need to teach him to sit in front while holding onto an object, but I'm not worrying about that yet.
Other aspects of retrieving that we have been working on:
- reaching underneath or into a small space to reach the retrieve object
- reaching up high to reach the object, especially pulling something down (this is quite difficult for Dragon because sudden falling motions scare him)
- pulling something out of a box or over a barrier (speaking of spatial reasoning, this is helping him to develop it!)
- retrieving larger, heavier, or awkwardly shaped objects
- retrieving objects by name (inspired by Dr. Irene Pepperberg and her work with Alex, I'm starting off by trying to teach him the names "ball" for his orange floaty ball and "sock" for his sock tug, next items will probably be "stick" and "hoof" for his pig hoof)
My eventual goal is to have both a formal retrieve for the obedience ring as well as a useful service dog-type retrieve of named objects. I can't explain why but retrieving is something that I really love training with the clicker, and all these variations on the behavior keep the training new and engaging for both of us.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Vet check scheduled
Dragon has a vet appointment on Thursday to get his teeth checked. I've noticed for a little while now that he would sometimes abruptly stop playing and not want to go back to it. This was happening both with toys and when we wrestle with my hands. It wasn't too frequent, and I wasn't sure if it was due to something uncomfortable in his jaw/teeth, or if he was hearing something that unsettled him and the problem was with his comfort level/play drive. Finally yesterday we were working on holding a plastic tube in his mouth without moving or chewing on it, and I was super excited because I was finally getting some microsecond holding action, when all of a sudden he dropped the tube and didn't want to put his mouth anywhere near it. I called the vet immediately to schedule a check-up.
In the meantime he's still chewing on a pig hoof every day, is still playing tug with the soft toys, and is still eating his food/treats normally. He even ate two chicken feet twice this week, though perhaps he ate more slowly than usual. So I'm not sure what the vet will find.
In the meantime he's still chewing on a pig hoof every day, is still playing tug with the soft toys, and is still eating his food/treats normally. He even ate two chicken feet twice this week, though perhaps he ate more slowly than usual. So I'm not sure what the vet will find.
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