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).

Awesome seminar. Notes to come soon.

I just read an article by Gary Wilkes where he suggests using a “working cue” while shaping. Once the behavior starts to look like something specific, start using the working cue. Use this while the behavior is refined and then when the behavior gets to 99% reliability, add the “performance cue”.

Pamela Reid is giving a seminar in Chicago! I’m waiting for a call back from the event organizer to hear about available space in the class. If there’s a spot, I’m signing up. It sounds like an amazing class - about advanced topics in how dog’s learn.

http://www.foryourcanine.com/

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.

Last weekend I attended the Training Levels Seminar led by Susan Ailsby. It was in Columbus at the new BRAG facility.

I registered for a working position and brought both Katy and Ellie. It was nice to have both dogs with me - I was able to work each one depending on the exercise and each dog’s skill set.

I took Ellie out on the mat for the “come” game. We played with Julie and worked on Ellie’s jumping problem. This is always a challenge because she really loves to jump up on Julie. She did well. We were using her name, though technically at Level One the dog’s name isn’t used. We used it since she’s already tested through Level One.

The seminar would be a great experience for “cross-over” trainers and new clicker trainers. Sue has many years of experience and is a cross-over trainer herself. She is great at comparing the different training methods and explaining the benefits that she has gained since making the change over to positive training with the clicker. At the end of the seminar, as Sue wrapped things up, she brought tears to a lot of people’s eyes while reflecting on what she could’ve done with her “past” dogs had she used her current training methods.

For experienced clicker trainers, Sue is a great resource for troubleshooting certain behaviors and for her great breakdown of basic behaviors. I really liked the way she demonstrated the swing finish. Watching Scuba work her hind end during heeling and doodling was great. I definitely got some serious “I want my dog to do that!” motivation from that demo.

One excellent quote:

“Our job is not to control our dogs. Our job is to teach our dogs to control themselves.”

And something that she came back to several times (my paraphrase):

“Dogs have been selected by humans for thousands of years to be our companions and working partners. They want to work with us and be with us. We don’t need to hurt them to make them do what we want. They already want to do the right thing. All we need to do is teach them.”