First Session: The Secrets of Top Working Dogs: Teaching decision-making skills with Steve White

A great inside look at the importance of developing fluent behaviors in working dogs. Steve showed and discussed examples of police dogs, SAR dogs and service dogs. He uses R+/P- to train police dogs and the resulting dogs’ performances under pressure demonstrate how advantageous these methods are for working dogs.

Second Session: “Did He Say Left or Right?”: Modifier cues: what they’re for and how to teach them with Ken Ramirez

This was a great session, with quite a few “a-ha” moments. The discussion extended beyond modifier cues to what Ken calls “concept training”. If you have ever seen the Africa Gray Parrot who can count the number of colored shapes on a plate - this is an animal who is performing beyond a simple cue/response situation. Animals are capable of so much more than what we give them credit for. Many of the attendees at the event are service dog trainers/owners/handlers - and the tasks and responsibilities that these dogs must master is kind of awesome to contemplate.

Third Session (Lab): Retrieve This!: The great American hot dog retrieval challenge with Steve White

In this session, we worked on shaping the dogs to “retrieve” a hot dog. This was a great way to demonstrate how a behavior can/must be broken down into small increments to make progress. Steve’s strategy was different than the one I used with Ellie.

I shaped Ellie to recognize that she needed to do her regular retrieve with the hot dog by “re-training” the retrieve with the hot dog instead of a toy. We just started at step one and moved on. Steve didn’t it a bit differently in that he took the dogs retrieve behavior and presented a non-interesting item. He shaped the hot dog by gradually making the item more and more like a hot dog.

Now - the strategy that I used with Ellie was perfect for her learning style and temperament. I tried it with Katy and she just chomped on the hot dog and ate it right away. I still want to teach her to play this game since it’s a wonderful challenge. I think that Steve’s strategy will work better for Katy (also, Katy’s retrieve, though enthusiastic, still needs work).

The other day I started working on Sue Ailsby’s scentwork with both Katy and Ellie.

The first step, at Level 3, is taking a single item and placing a piece of food under it and then letting the dog find the food. I used both a towel and some big plastic party cups. Both dogs “got” the game and found the food.

The next step, at Level 4, requires the assistance of a stranger. I took two of the plastic party cups to work and had my co-worker handle them for about 30 seconds each. He then put them back in a plastic bag and I didn’t touch them.

Today I took out one of the cups, being careful not to put my hand in the bag or to touch Ben’s cup and put my scent on the one that I pulled out. We played the game where I put just a little bit of cream cheese on the cup and send Ellie to “find it”.

After about eight successful “finds” and three times when she picked up the cup and brought it to me, I brought out Ben’s cup and placed it next to mine (mine has writing on it so that I can tell the difference between the two cups). Ellie found my cup about eight out of ten times. I changed the relative position of my cup on each trial so that she wasn’t picking the cup based on it’s positioning. Twice, I set the cup down while she was in a sit-stay in the other room, so she couldn’t watch me put it down. She got those right as well.

As Sue indicates, the hard part for the dog isn’t the scent discrimination. It’s learning that what I want is for her to pick the one that smells like me! The only thing that I wonder about (well not the only thing) is whether she’s playing this like the hot/cold game. I don’t think she is - as she’s going straight to the correct cup at a high rate. But, I’ll have to work a few more sessions to determine if I think she really get’s that it’s my scent that she’s working for. The other difference between this and the H/C game besides the fact that I had Ben stink up the cups is that the items are identical in appearance. When we play the H/C game, I use items that are very different physically from each other.

After making a list of things we need to work on, I realized that I have start moving Ellie’s contact training along. We’ve been stalled at hand touches for the exact reason that was given at the puppy camp. They’re boring! But, the excitement will be our incremental but observable progress!

So, today at lunch, I worked with the plexiglass target. My mechanics are better, but still rough. As soon as the target is within an inch of the floor, Ellie wants to hit it with her paw. For the next couple of sessions, I need to have her practice hitting it high for a couple times, then low. Set her up for success. She will get that even when the target is parallel to the floor, it’s still to be hit with her nose. She’s so fast that she sneaks her paw in there right as I’m saying “yes”.

On to the next step with this behavior. I’m asking for a nice, square solid sit. One second count. Nose touch above her head. My hand target is within her reach so she doesn’t have to jump or really even move her body to it. Only her head. Hopefully, I’ll see the slightest bit of weight shift towards her back end.

(note: with new steps in the shaping of this, the original list will have to be redone.)

Session 1 :: Only problem is my sloppy handling. If she sits at an angle, she has a tendency to twist as she reaches for the hand target. I think I want her sitting straight on in front of me. Hmmm. Does that mean going back to shaping the sit and selecting for position. I think I’ll wait until after this next session and watch how bad the twisting is. I’m feeding this behavior in position.

Session 2 :: Patience. She’s doing really well. All I want to see is collection of the back. Keep sessions really short since the handler can’t seem to maintain her criteria for longer than about ten treats.

Next session. Same as before.

Katy hasn’t practiced her skateboard training in awhile.

During the last practice session, she was standing on the skateboard and easily tolerating lots of movement under her feet. Mostly, though, it was moving because of her weight shifts rather than moving because she was actually pushing it. I would like her to push it - moving with her front feet on the skateboard and her back feet on the ground.

Goal for todays first session: Orient the skateboard so that Katy’s body is closer to parallel with the board. Click for solid front feet on the board and a good position (between 12 and 3 o’clock). Any movement of the board is good as well.

Session 1 :: OK. So Katy isn’t clear on where her feet should be on the skateboard. Totally my fault - I never taught her that there was a preferred placement of her feet. The problem is that she tends to walk towards me on the board and ends up on the front, upturned end. And then she pops a wheelie on the board. Which is cute and she doesn’t mind it. But it conflicts with what I want the finished behavior to be.

Next session, she will be clicked for the placement of her front feet. Both feet, anywhere on the flat part of the board. I’ll stabilize the board a little bit so we can focus on the foot placement.

Session 2 :: Much better. I put the skateboard on the pink velour blanket so it didn’t move around too much. I’ll repeat this session a couple of times. After maybe one or two more sessions, I’ll change the criteria to putting her feet anywhere on the flat part except for the one inch before the upturned ends.

Session 3 :: Perfect. She’s getting and is successful at least 80% of the time. Next session, raise the criteria for feet being closer to the center of the board.

Clicker Retrieve
From Deb Jones
with modifications for using a tennis ball in preparation for flyball.

TRAINING STEPS:

I. With tennis ball in your hand, close to you

1. Look at ball
2. Move towards ball
3. Sniff ball
4. Touch w/nose
5. Touch with mouth/teeth
6. Put mouth over ball
7. Close mouth over ball
8. Hold in closed mouth
9. Increase hold duration

II. With ball placed on floor within 3 ft. of you

10. Look at ball
11. Move towards ball
12. Sniff the ball
13. Touch w/ nose
14. Touch w/mouth/teeth
15. Put mouth over ball
16. Close mouth over ball
17. Pick up off of floor
18. Increase vertical distance off floor
19. Turn towards trainer w/ball in mouth
20. Move one step towards trainer
21. Increase number of steps towards trainer
22. Bring ball to trainer

III. Adding distance

23. Place ball four feet away. CT for pick-up
24. CT later & later on return
25. CT when dog reaches handler
26. Keep increasing the distance that the ball is placed away from the handler
27. Yo-yo distances
28. Place ball on a raised surface - like a chair seat, ottomon or overturned laundry basket.
29. Repeat steps 23 through 27 with the ball on a raised surface.

IV. Adding requirements

Retrieve over jump
Proof for send anticipation (stimulus control)
Proof for distractions

Solutions for common problems:

Playing with the object, including keep away: 2 treats/toys, trade, on leash work. Shorter, calmer retrieves. Place object rather than throw it.

Mouthing: size & type of retrieve object. Position of head.

Anticipation: NEVER CORRECT, just don’t reinforce. Reinforce the stay instead.

In class on Saturday, Ellie was off leash and decided to take off and visit some of the other dogs. This is always kind of embaressing, plus, not all of the dogs in the class are necessarily interested in meeting her (though fortunately, they were all tolerant of her).

She seemed to think that running away from me was quite a fun game.

Susan Garrett sets her classes up for this situation in the most excellent way. If your dog runs away, then your job is to leave the building as quickly and inconspicuously as possible. All of the other handlers are aware of the situation and it’s their job to keep their dogs under control. This eliminates the dog getting to enjoy a game of keep away. Plus the dog will hopefully learn that it’s their job to pay attention to the handler - because if they don’t, the handler may just disappear!

Unfortunately, not every class room is as well planned out as Susan’s. So, I decided last night that I have a great way to teach Ellie if I rush towards her and grab her collar it’s a good thing. Everytime I give her any special treats - like frozen bones or licks off of spoons - I’m going to rush towards her, grab her collar and then give her the special treat. She gets the treats anyway - so why not get some great training out of the situation.

I’ll probably also incorporate this into intermittent training sessions. This would be a great game to use with the veal flavored baby food. Sneak up on her, rush in, grab the collar and then let her take a big lick out of the jar.

I’ll also play the same game with Katy.

Quick session on the buja board. Very good. C/T for two feet on and making it move.

Second session - also good. Clicking for movement of the board. She started walking over it with her back feet touching the board as well. Almost without any concern for the movement of the board.

Third session. Excellent. Going over board with all four paws. Towards the end, she stepped on the board with one front paw and may have caught her other paw under the board. This made her a little bit more cautious. Next session, she’ll get lots of clicks for confidently hitting the board no matter what.

This is awesome progress for her!

8. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, eyes on handler, Click for upright sit - three seconds.

Short session on step 8. Waiting for some feedback on making the transition to step 7.

She offered a few sloppy sits. When she’s in a nice sit, I give her eye contact. When she’s in a sloppy sit, I look at the floor just beside her. The idea being that she’ll seek out my eyes and scootch herself into a neater sit. She definitely responded when she couldn’t get my eye contact and tried her sit again.

8a. Dog sitting in a solid upright sit, eyes on handler, Click for upright sit - two seconds.

Average session. One key thing to remember with Katy - don’t toss the treat so that she can lie down and reach it. Once she lies down, she may never get back up!

Many more sloppy sits were offered during this session than in the last session. I think there was an “aha” moment when I waited her out while she was laying down, then sat up kind of fast and I was able to click and treat. We were able to end with a couple of nice, 2-sec, straight sits.

We’re still on this step though.