A few weeks ago, I purchased Greg Derrett’s two training videos, Foundations and Shame About the Handler. I’m now officially in love with Greg’s handling techniques. His foundation work is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I just wish I would have had this video at the beginning of the summer.

Fortunately, fall in Ohio is usually pretty nice, so I still have at least two months of nice outdoor weather. Truthfully, some of the circlework would be fun to work outside in the snow as well.

Jo’s “Teach Your Dog to Turn” (membership required) and “Direction Cues”

So, thinking about left and right directional cues. Jo makes a very good point about pre-planning what the cue will mean when it is delivered. Does “left” mean turn left now or does it mean turn left after the next obstacle. I think the way that I’ve taught Ellie and Katy “left”, it’s definitely a turn left now signal. And it’s definitely a spin. I’m not sure that I can take the spin and adapt it with the same cue to equipment.

SG instructed us to teach the directionals without the spin. The dog needs to be able to head in the right direction without spinning themselves around in a circle. But, if I’m reading Jo’s article correctly (and following Greg’s example), the spin is taught first and then adapted to useful directionals on the equipment. I’m a bit confused about the best way to do this. Though, by teaching Ellie to spin left, and reinforcing it so that it’s become an extremely reliable behavior, I can definitely get her to respond and turn to her left side almost instantaneously. Some more thinking on my part is required.

Greg’s “wait” command is going to be my command of the week. It’s obviously essential to all future exercises and I really like the stand position. I also like the routine of placing the dog in the wait. I may want to shape it - though I wonder if the routine of the physical cues (lifting the dog a bit, then grabbing the scruff) help reinforce the behavior because the cue is so distinct.

Started some object discrimination. She will learn which toy is which! Started with the little shark. Turned out to be more of a polite retrieve session.

Lots of swimming tonight at the lake. Ellie braved some rather large waves and did quite nicely. Katy, of course, was only willing to retrieve a log. Thank goodness Frank has a good throwing arm(s).

Katy: Two foot touch to mousepad. Experimenting with target for contacts. Try it out on Katy and then decide if I want to use it with Ellie. Plans to tape Ellie, Katy, Pete and Woody running and pausing on contacts just to get a good image of body position. May use other dogs in Julie’s agility class as well.

Katy: Also practiced backing up. Added the verbal command. She loves to do this. Silly girl.

Awesome seminar. Notes to come soon.

Ellie learned how to swim! She’s no longer scared of going in over her head! Yeah!

Victoria Farrington, Bob Bailey and Gary Wilkes all describe using a NRM (no reward marker) during shaping sessions.

Victoria’s explanation from the agility.uk forum really made it clear for me. Why waste time and energy during a shaping session letting the dog try every trick in the book. A simple NRM will help get the dog on track without a huge amount of handler interference.

I worked one NRM session with each dog today using Bob Bailey’s description. They both caught on right away (Katy was a whiz kid, of course). The only confusion that I have is that Bob seems to indicate that a cue is already in use for the initial hot spot. I’m wondering if the same cue (Sd) is then used for the *new* hotspot. Guess I’ll have to ask the experts…

For the session, I used pyrex refigerator bowls - a green round one and a red square one. I used un-unh as my NRM, but I think I’m going to use “not that”. It’s more concise.

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/

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”.