BACK: almost ready to add the cue

(At :36 I dropped the clicker and L rushed to retrieve it)

ADDING A CUE

When the dog is moving backwards readily, and moving until you click (maybe up to 4 or 5 steps), you can tell her what the behavior is called.

SIT STAY takes many forms

SIT STAY: Level 4

In Level 4 both Distance and Duration become farther and longer. Sit Stay Level 4 the dog remains seated for 2 minutes while the trainer walks 20' away pushing a walker, turns and faces the dog and returns around behind the dog to the Side position (right side). AND with no treats or clicker.

That's nothing. In Down Stay Level 4 the dog Downs and Stays for 5 minutes while the trainer walks 40' away pushing a walker or wheelchair, turns and faces the dog and returns around behind the dog to the Heel position (left side).

In this video, Lily easily passes the 2 minute criteria of the Sit Stay. In real life, she has passed this behavior and tested it cold. Here we were actually re-viewing "no clicker/no treats" for Tuesday's mentoring session.

The next video was made a year and a half ago. The duration is 30 seconds less but the Setting Factors are more challenging. This was actually a ZEN exercise but another "no clicker/no treats" exercise utilizing the Sit Stay. It turned out to also be a SIT L3 exercise (sit from 10').

In Level 4, On the Road the dog performs Level 2 behaviors for a known person of the opposite sex of the trainer. In preparation, in the mentoring group we begin by having another trainer re-teaching L2 behaviors.

Yet, with all this experience, Lily has difficulty re-learning the behavior when being taught by another trainer. The behavior criteria was that no paws could move. Lily couldn't stop dancing! Her duration was 3 seconds. With these Setting Factors. On this day.

That's the fun of training. That's the frustration of training. That's reality. Same behavior in three different conditions. Three different results. Passing a behavior cold isn't the end. It's often just the beginning.

WATCH: Level 2 and beyond

A solid 30 second WATCH (eye lock) is a Comebefore for the Swing Finish. L2 requires 10 seconds of eye lock. L3 and above ask for 30 seconds under differing conditions. Lily has been asked for 1 minute of eye lock under differing conditions, so that, when asked, 30 seconds is a "no brainer" (hopefully!)

When making these videos, the only distraction was Shayla wandering in and out of the room. Personally, I think a secret to success of Watch is in not introducing distractions too soon. Re-teach it in different rooms and different circumstances (BMO), yes. But very very gradual introduction of distractions. Control the Setting Factors.

When these flips were made, we had already built an easy minute of duration using Chutes and Ladders. It is a solid behavior. Now we are just reviewing it. There are no treats and no clicker during this session. (See the drool beginning in the 1 minute flip?) She knows there are treats forthcoming but they are in another room. No clicker, either. Just a quiet "Yes" upon completion.

Admittedly, Lily was born with eye lock. Truly. So it was not a difficult behavior to teach ... for this dog. But we followed it step by step anyway and the dividends have paid off in spades. Be persistent. Don't give up. A solid Watch is a thing of beauty and it IS achievable with patience and persistence.

Training Levels 1 and 2 for positioning

Using L1 Target to put Lily in PRECISELY the position that I want.

I can move her forward or backward using the palm position

Then L2 StandStay goes in to effect.

I want to practice this enough that staying where she has been placed

becomes default.

Lily sits into her hind legs, so if I position her Stand directly in front of me

when she Sits, she is off to one side or the other.

Once again, using L1 Target, I can compensate for her anatomy

and direct her into a Sit directly in front of me.

Nad has this same Sit problem.

Same thing getting Lily into a Down position in front of me.

If she ends up a little too far forward or a little far back,

I can reposition her using my L1 Target.

Now it's a matter of re-teaching and training these behaviors

in different and challenging environments.

BMO

This is a perfect example of where the above skills would be extremely useful.

Three-fers

RETRIEVE

Teaching Lily to pick up her toys and put them in the toy basket.  We have moved to three-fers - three toys put away for a single treat.  There are over 20 toys in the exercise.  If one falls out of the basket, it doesn't count.  The final goal?  Pick up ALL of the toys for one reward.  Right now, we are moving slowly....she just graduated to three-fers this week.  Each time we practice, though, the toys and the toy basket are in a different location in the room and a different distance from each other.

At this point in the training, I am just the treat dispenser.  Lily understands the game and knows what her job is.

Contraband

Ah, Lily. Lily needs a job today. So far this morning she has brought this emu, 3 rocks, a stick and ....... drum roll, please ...... the camera itself! She knows they will ALL be taken from her, but brings them to me anyway.

Cat Zen

Teaching......and re-teaching CHANGE (the Back Cross)

I food lured this behavior initially.

Then dropped the food and just lured with the hand motion.

In this video, she readily responds to a flick of the hand,

but has not yet adjusted to the change from hand signal to verbal cue.

Lily is having difficulty switching from the hand signal to the verbal cue.

(New Cue + Old Cue + Behavior + C/T)

So we are going to use another method of changing the cue.....

re-teach the behavior.

This time I am shaping. I end up allowing myself NMT 2 lures to "get her started".

After a break, I put Shayla on GTM and trained Lily again,
this time using Sue's "training 2 dogs at a time" method:
every time Lily DIDN'T earn a C/T I treated Shayla instead.
THIS really got her attention and her learning curve picked up substantially.


Next step......a moving CHANGE.

In her new book, Sue differentiates between teaching behaviors with the leash on and with the leash off.
In teaching CHANGE, Lily is off leash.
In "real life" when using this behavior she will most likely be on leash and in SDW position. Because I will have to physically change the leash from one hand to the other in order for her to pass behind me and to remain on the opposite side, just the motion of changing the leash to the other hand will itself become a cue.

Maybe...

someday...

we will need to put this behavior with a moving wheelchair!

Pick Up Your Toys: building persistence

Yesterday, after Landry left, the family room was full of the toys that the dogs had played with all day. It had been months since I had asked Lily to pick up more than one or two toys. Today I wanted her to pick them ALL up.

So I decided to make a training session of it. I got out the HV treats, my clicker and set to work. I quickly discovered that both Lily and Shayla were over the top at the smell of the delectable treats and no training was accomplished at all.

I picked up the toys myself, and then asked Miss Pink to put the remaining 2 toys into the toy box and she readily complied.

This morning we began again. First a few toys, to re-mind her of the behavior. Then the entire box full of toys.

In the video below, my criteria is to find the toys and put them into the toybox. No cue. It is the third time this morning that we have trained the behavior.

Lily is a very persistent dog. She continues hunting to find the keys long after I would have thought that she would lose interest. I want to utilize that same persistence as I teach her to pick up ALL the toys. Eventually I want to pay only ONCE. Now I am paying for each toy. Next, will come two-fers, etc.

I do not pay for the same toy twice. (Well, once I did by mistake) I do not pay if the toy does not get completely IN the box. Those are "givens".

Notice how Lily remains in the game, but several times forgets exactly WHAT the game is! And, at the very end, it seemingly takes her FOREVER to see those last 3 toys in front of the door.

There are 23 toys. I used 25 treats.

Dale, here is the continuation of the training of this behavior.

Day 2:

Goal: Two-fers

Two toys for a single click.

Training smarter. Using string cheese. (Lily NEVER gets string cheese!) Putting out only 2 toys. The same 2 toys during the entire session. Placed in the very same places.

Again, with Lily I needed to give her some help to get her started. And, again, Shayla is totally In the Game only she has no clue what to do. And, yes, I'm actually giving her string cheese. (Pray for the cheese)

Lily always went to the single ring first, so we did a session with only the 3-ring toy. Then added the single ring and she no longer discriminated between the two. In the very beginning, Lily had a difficult time going back to find the 3-ring toy, even tho it is the larger object. I did not pay her for taking toys out of the toybox and putting them in. Only for looking for and finding the toys on the floor.

Once I waited for the Two-fer, she needed no further help.

This is definitely a behavior in progress. I trained until we ran out of the single strip of cheese.

3-fers. For Landry's kibble!!!

We're continuing to train this behavior, using 3-fers. I have begun changing out 1 toy at a time - 2 same toys, 1 different. And changing distance/location of the toys in teeny-tiny increments.

THE SWING FINISH

I made a quick little Flip movie this morning
trying to show my position in relation to Lily
while teaching the Swing Finish.....Lily on the stool.....
moving both to the Tuck position and to the Side position.

Just as in the Canis video that we are using
keep in mind that both that little black puppy
AND Lily already know the behavior
so we/they advance much more quickly than your dogs will.

The Flip that I made is to demonstrate trainer position in relation to the dog
and then, mine morphed in a pivot. Watch my feet. Pivoting is described in STEPS.

We now have a collection of ways to teach the swing finish:

Steps, the video and Sue's "new" way that she
introduced at the clinic!

More ideas for Home Depot

Karen has found a nearby Home Depot that welcomes her and Webster. That's a wonderful opportunity. I love HD (and Lowe's) as training locations. Most HD customers are there for a purpose and tend to ignore you while you are training, while providing extraordinary distractions with carts of every description. They open early. Lots of noises you don't find elsewhere. Even the bathrooms offer great training opportunities. And training OUTSIDE of HD is as good as inside.

Here are some ways that I utilized Home Depot in Lily's training. I'll bet you can come up with a hundred more.

Taking the Cart OTR

This can just as easily be done unvested

or in a harness

outside of the store

nearer the dog

at greater distances

with different distractions

by the door

in the parking lot

as a GTM exercise

as a leash exercise as you pull/push the cart

as L1 or L2 BMO

You're only limited by your imagination!

The many faces of Go to Mat

Shaping to lie down and curl up in small, confined spaces

Simulating a bus or airplane space

Preceding me into a seat

Remaining in position until cued to move

When we were working on GTM in small places

we spent many mornings in both the back seat and the passenger seat of my SUV

with Lily on the floor between my legs while I sipped on my morning coffee

and read a book.

Lily's first ride on the Red Bus in BP

Yes, this too is GTM.

How small is a Weimaraner?

Miss Lily

Different GO TO MAT Challenges

Large mats.  Small mats.
Smooth mats.  Fuzzy mats.
On the ground mats.  Off the ground mats.
Inside.  Outside.
Not THAT mat, THIS one.
Adding Distance.
Go to Mat to go under.

What will we do with the mat today?

One behavior.

One cue.

So much fun!

(new) ZEN: Level 3

WATCH: Level 2 (Click for Contact)

Treats in both hands.  Lily sees them.
Swap clicker during exercise.
Adding motion to the treat hands.
Midway through, I open both hands, so she can see the treats.
AND
Stitch comes in.

Clicking for contact, only, but solid contact...not just a glance.

A Day with Boon and Sheila

We had a fun day of socialization and training.

• maintaining a LL at the entrance to the Coronado Dog Beach
• off leash work at Coronado Cays Dog Run
• resting under the table while the trainers ate lunch at the Coronado Golf Club House
• a ride on the Coronado Ferry
• walking on a loose leash through the Art Fair
• sand and wading in water on San Diego Bay
• visiting the bowling alley on base

Behaviors

• Lazy Leash
• Go Ahead when exiting the car
• Sit Stay/Down Stay/Recall carrying leash @ Coronado Dog Beach
• moving Down/Come out of play/off leash Down when Lynn is prone on the ground @ Coronado Cays Dog Run (white German Shepherd running free and walking over Lynn)
• Down/Stay under table at Golf Club
• Stand Stay waiting in line on pier for Coronado Ferry
• Sit/ Down/ Stand on open deck of ferry
• Paws Up (extended) on concrete trash cans @ Cays Dog Run
• Paws Up on video game equipmet at Bowling Alley
• focus and attention in all locations
• Pigeon Zen
• Dog Zen

Needs work

• GTM 
• duration
• under benches, chairs, tight places
• SIT: L6
• tucking under a chair/bench between my legs

MILESTONE

Yesterday Dale came and took Lily for one of their long walks while Landry and I were at his Puppy Class at the Humane Society.

When they returned, Dale said, "It was a wonderful walk!  Lily kept the leash so loose that every once in a while I had to look to make sure that she was still there."

A MIND SET

For Thursday's Mentoring Session, we have all been tasked with a problem solving exercise:

PROBLEM SOLVING
In the past we have "tolerated" certain unacceptable behaviors in each of our dogs. For this session, those behaviors will not be tolerated.
Does this mean that problems will be solved at the end of the session?  No.
But this will be our underlying mind set.


Please come with a plan and a no-nonsense approach to a solution.
Plan in advance how you intend to change your training agenda to convey this message to your dog
(or someone else's dog, since we will be handling each others dogs).
I want you to think decisively and affirmatively as you plan.

The three of you have discussed "manners" of your dogs as a "missing link".
Sue's explanation of vested vs non-vested work addressed "manners".
This session we are going to tie it all together and get started.
Think Sue's analogy of a 10-year old boy.

Lily's "unacceptable behavior" is her inability to keep a loose leash when being handled by someone else when I am in the vicinity.  Her focus is on me.  I am the single focal point that cannot be resisted.

So I want to review Leash and Zen, the ultimate self control behaviors, to re-mind (re-teach, re-view) Lily that it is HER job to remember that when the leash is on, the leash remains loose.


This addresses the behavior.  But it does not address my mind set.  Sue would say, "Don't settle".  I have been settling.  Last Thursday I asked Jan to please bring Lily into class while I dealt with Landry.  We were long in the class before Jan arrived with Lily on a loose leash.  That is unacceptable.  End of story.  So that is the "unaccptable behavior" that I am going to bring to the mentoring session.


This is Part 1 of my plan.  Training.  LEASH: Level 2: Steps 3 and 4 from Sue's Clinic Handout.  ZEN: Level 4: Step 4 from the new book.


ZEN.  ZEN.  Then more ZEN.

Step 4: c)

"there is nothing but training in between the dog and the treat"

We have practiced this on leash and off.  Now there are multiple focal points using Lily's highest value training treats.  From here we will move up to hot dogs, cheese and other irresistibles.  Shayla is eating from her bowl in the background and then, ignores my admonition and helps herself to desert.

There are 3 treats.  I make it more challenging adding Sit Down and Roll beside and once over the treat.  But Lily knows a training "set up" when she sees one.  That's OK.  We have to begin someplace.

And it's not as easy for her as you might think.  She is drooling big time.

Then add some challenging ZEN for continued practice in self control.  It's all about self control on Lily's part and expecting nothing less on my part.

ZEN: Level 4 (new book): Step 4

"Dog stays off a treat that the trainer drops. The cue is not given until AFTER the treat starts to drop."

This will require an immediate response - sometimes in mid-snap. My picture of the perfect performance would involve me tossing a treat at Stitch, then softly saying Leave It before it reaches her. She closes her mouth, and the treat hits her in the snoot. Sweet!

The next component will be adding the leash and combining these skills with basic Loose Leash Walking AND Service Dog Walking.


And maintaining my "Don't settle" mind set.  THIS is the key.

Saturday Stuff

VARIATIONS ON A CALL BOX

Criteria/Lynn:  Single "call" cue, never facing the direction of the call box
Criteria/Lily:    On a single cue, go directly to call box and activate it.  Then return to me.

"Activate" means to hit the box soundly enough that I hear the buzzer.

Begin in the same room.  Continue sending from everywhere in the downstairs of the house, from inside the powder room, inside the stair closet, pink sofa in living room.  From sidewalk outside the front door.

CUE DISCRIMINATION from a DISTANCE and OOS (sort of)

Cueing from the stove in the kitchen to Lily in the family room.  When she is in a Down we can't see each other.  When she is in a Sit or a Brace, I can see her but she can't see me.  When she activates the call box I only know she has accomplished the behavior when I hear the buzzer alert.

Sit!  Whatever happened to Sit?

Down?  Down where?

2 PAWS UP ....... BUILDING DURATION and STRENGTH

Final GOAL:  Paws Up on a vertical surface without swiping her paws

But today we're working on extending duration on many different surfaces, horizontal and finally, the wall.

Sometimes we get 1 Paw Up

Sometimes 3

"Two Paws on a Wall"

All in a day's work.

Where's the Flip when you need it?

You will have to picture this.

At the homeopathic vet where they have Lily's favorite blueberry treats. I help myself to a handful.

A big, fluffy fat cat sitting on the far end of the counter 5' away.

At the other end, Lily.

"Paws Up".

1...2...3...4...etc...to 12

C/T. Blueberry treat.

"Paws Up".

1...2...3...4...etc...to 15

C/T. Blueberry treat.

etc

etc

etc

Cat? What cat?

COACHING SESSION REPORT: 8/10/10

A good coaching session with Dale and Lily. And several "firsts". First time for Lily riding in Dale's truck. First time we had a coaching session with both Lily and Landry together, although working on different behaviors.

Dale will begin taking Lily to work with him, little steps at a time, next week. So although Dale has trained with Lily and her Car Zen and Car Safety behaviors in MY car, now she must ride in Dale's truck. Everything about this is different and must be practiced.

This was also the first time that Dale has handled Lily when I was working with another dog. Initially Lily was unable to give Dale focus, attention OR a loose leash. When we moved my car to Landry' second training location, it was within Lily's line of sight. She verbalized her discomfort. So we discovered another area of Lily's separation anxiety that we will need to practice more to change.

It was an excellent session and we learned a lot. We did not Flip Lily.

Lily learns a "lady like" behavior

DELIVER: LEVEL TWO

The dog targets a palm-up hand in the seated trainer's lap.

Dog must be able to target the left or right hand, whichever is palm-up.

The cue for this behavior is "Touch".

The

Now we add some duration. Then raise the criteria until she is actually resting her head in my hand and we now have a new behavior, "Place".

Training Discovery: Put the iClicker on the floor, upside down under your foot, for a controllable hands-free click.

And, "Why", you ask? Why teach this Place behavior to Lily? Lily is sometimes a drooler. She can Place on a terry towel (or a lacy handkerchief) and wipe her mouth herself.

Walking with Dale

At least twice weekly, Dale is walking Lily around Coronado before taking Landry home. Dale insists on a Lazy Leash. Dale insists, too, that Lily walk on his right side. His reports are glowing, for the most part.

I remember Sue saying that if you were to take Scuba's leash, Scuba would immediately ask, "Do you believe in loose leashes?" and, if your answer was negative, she would pull you from here to kingdom come. If your answer, however, was, "I sure do!" you would be walking a feather.

Lily doesn't need to ask that question of Dale.

Yesterday he walked her downtown on Orange Avenue and they encountered several dogs. Dale described it this way, "Lily really made me look good." No Flip could describe it better.

High Rate of Reinforcement

In cleaning out the "doggy" closet, I came across the scent stick that Beth brought back from a conference with Steve and Jen White. It has inspired me to refine Lily's TARGET behavior.....to touching with her nose ONLY. No tongue. No licking. No open mouth. And then, I will use this scent stick as a touch stick. If I feel like it. There is no touch stick to be found in Steps. But maybe I will need it one day.

My plan is to use an extremely high Rate of Reinforcement. If she is chewing or swallowing a treat, her mouth will be closed and her tongue will be busy.

No clicker. There won't be time. And if I can keep from dropping the treats, it can be fast.

23 touches in 51 seconds

23 touches, again!

Training "a handful at a time"

Tomorrow we will begin again and, if Lily's mouth stays closed, I will begin extending the stick little by little.

Training CAR ZEN

Karen and Webster made me think of this training Flip. This was in the Pendleton Commissary parking lot, but we began parked in front of our house and then progressed into far corners of parking lots, etc......just like when we all began OTR with Level 1.

SIT: Level 6: BMO in real life

A busy Sunday afternoon in the shoe department. First we did L6 under my chair and then BMO in the chair beside me. It's nice when a plan comes together!

Cues: "Tuck" and "Back". Once each.

Bethany "plays" ZEN with Lily and Shayla

Cat ZEN

Remember those brazen next door neighbor cats? The ones that came into my house? The ones that I hate? Well, they were good for something after all. Teaching Lily Cat ZEN.

Just look at that Lazy Leash! Just listen to that "neutral No"! Mission accomplished.

Walking with children CHALLENGE

Colin, 4, and Bethany, 6, take Shayla and Lily for a short walk before breakfast.

Using RETRIEVE to teach self control

CRITERIA: Pick up from floor and hold quietly in her mouth until clicked to release (approx. 30 seconds)

Turkey Log Retrieve

(no teeth marks)

Sweet Potato Retrieve

(no teeth marks)

Orange Retrieve

(teeth marks, but didn't break surface)

Hot Dog Retrieve

(no teeth marks, but not ready to remove the wrapper)

LEASH: Level 2: Step 4

In this session, Dale had just arrived for his mentoring session. He was an "over the top" single focal point for Lily. But Lily and I had been working on this Step and she made good decisions.

Step 4 has several "classic" admonitions.

"Click anywhere you see a good decision happening."

"You want to TEACH the behaviour by turning away,

and PRACTISE it by walking past."

"Walk by on the RIGHT side of the Focal Point,

so there is nothing but training in between the dog and the treat."

"Be especially vigilant to notice the decisions she makes."

"So far you have a very small beginning of a Lazy Leash. Use it to teach yourself AND your dog what a loose leash feels like. When you get used to it, your hands will start telling your feet to back up without your brain having to be involved at all."

MOVING DOWN

(This is a Rally behavior)

Step 1. Getting an instant Down in position

Step 2. Getting an instant Down in position and beginning to step further

Step 3. Stepping further and further without breaking stride

No click if she doesn't meet criteria. I will try and make a newer Flip tomorrow showing the completed behavior.

ROLL

Luring the Roll

Lily and Bethany

RALLY: Left About Turn

Using my target hand,
I lead Lily across in front of me to my right

while I make a 180 degree turn to my left.

She ends up in heel position.

WATCH and the 3Ds: Duration, Distance, Distraction

Saturday Morning Walk by the Bay

Saturday morning.

A 35 minute session.

21 dogs. (2 off leash but under verbal control) Bikes. Skateboards. Walkers. A wheelchair.

LOTS of Saturday morning pedestrian traffic.

CRITERIA: No tight leash.

DETERMINE THRESHOLD re: passing distractions

No clicker.

No treats.

The bike path is 8' wide.

The sandy lot where we were walking borders the path.

We paralleled the path about 15' away.

Most dogs and other distractions passed us on the path.

But 4 dogs (2 pit bulls, a Golden and a yellow lab) passed us on the other side of the lot itself.

No cues given.

"Good girl!" was the only reward.

I was aiming at interest but no other reaction and that's what I got,

so the 15' was definitely under Lily's threshold.

By 1030 it was getting hot and we left. A GOOD session. Totally uneventful and ho-hum. Just the way we wanted it.

Target: Level 2 Building Distance and Duration, Separately

Distance: from inside to outside

Verbal cue only

Distance: to a tree

Verbal cue only

Duration: clicking only when paws are steady

On this surface, you only have to "hear": noise or silence

Gaining control on the wall

Gaining control AND Duration

There are distractions on the left and on the right

The Road Trip Game

All three of these exercises were done within 15' of the car....just moving in different directions away from our parking space we had quite different distractions.

On the Road: Road Trip Game

Anywhere. Anytime. L1 IN the water.

Making History

5 Long Minutes

What a conundrum.

Caught in the act.

Lily is not allowed in the kitchen.

Aha!

I wonder how she got there then.

Or how long she was "bagged" before I discovered her.

Sue shaping SURFACES: L2; The next Steps

Now we have moved to a different room. Sue remains seated. The contact board is parallel over 6' in front of her. Because my house is small, there is little room for Lily to approach each end of the board directly from any great distance, so she has to make a concerted effort to accomplish this. The oriental rug proves to be a HUGE distraction and initially slows down the pace of learning. Lily is just sure there are treats hidden in the pattern of the rug.

Note that throughout the following sessions, no cue is given....either with the body, the arm or verbal. The choice continues to be all Lily's. But note, too, how Sue uses the tossed treat to encourage Lily's movements.

In Session 2 Sue begins from the beginning explaining the criteria from yesterday: 4 paws on the board.

Then the criteria changes just a smidge: 4 paws on the board while moving.

In Session 3 the criteria changes once again. 4 paws on the board while moving the length of the board.

And then, 4 paws on the board while moving the ENTIRE length of the board. These are all different criteria. Minute changes - but changes nonetheless.

Again, no lumping. No luring. No handsignals. No cues at all. The clicker and Lily are having a conversation.

Sue is in no hurry. There is no rush to raise criteria. At the end of Session 3 this is still a work in progress. The steps, however, are each valued for what they are and are not merely a means to the end. Lily is given the opportunity to learn. Step by little step.

Of course, now from here we will generalize, we add the cue when we have Lily dependably offering the criteria in each step, until we end up with the final desired behavior.

Lily learning a new behavior. Lynn getting an invaluable lesson in shaping and criteria. And patience.

Session 2

Session 3

Sue shaping SURFACES: L2; Step 1

NOTE: This is a long clip (11 1/2 minutes). Before uploading from FlipShare to my desktop, I restarted the computer. It took 10 minutes to upload from computer to desktop. It took 10 minutes to upload from desktop to the blog. There is merit in restarting the computer and clearing the RAM memory before beginning this process.

I "shaped" Lily to this behavior over two years ago as we progressed through her training. My shaping was similar to what we saw at the clinic and to what I am seeing in recent training Flips since. I never put a cue on the behavior.

When Sue was here last October, I asked her to show me how she would shape the behavior.

Below is Session 1, Step 1. While watching, keep in mind that Lily has been shaped all her life. She has developed shaping stamina. She is In the Game throughout. She and Sue were focused on each other, despite the fact that Stitch, Shayla and I were in the room.

Sue is seated throughout. No luring. No handsignals. Only the clicker. The clicker does all the talking.

Note the position of the contact board; how it changes throughout the session; where it is in relation to Sue and how it affects Lily.

Note the criteria in Step 1: 4 paws on the board. Moving or walking on the board has nothing to do with Step 1. Just 4 paws on the board. The criteria never changes. No lumping here.

Note, too, how Sue uses the treat in her explanation; how it varies in position, placement and direction. She is explaining the behavior in a variety of ways....but never increasing the criteria.

Sue adds the cue, "Walk On" in this Step. Whenever Lily forgets, Sue drops the cue and re-teaches (reminds Lily of the criteria) from the beginning without breaking the flow of the training.

Lily is doing ALL of the work. The clicker is marking the behavior. No movement on Sue's part at all.

The Moving Down

We were first introduced to this behavior in Lily's Rally class.

Beginning with a Down on the left side

Move, hesitate, Down

Beginning to be "left behind"

Starting over on the right side

Step by little step.....

Change: A 3-Minute Behavior

Yes, a 3-minute behavior........when you don't LUMP the initial explanation!!!

We've got the moving behavior as well. Lily still needs the handsignal to accompany the verbal cue the majority of the time. We're still working on this "3-minute behavior".

Training at Fashion Valley: LS/SA

First to the Apple store and the Genius bar. 15 minutes.

Then we trained forever sitting facing one another on two benches in the mall. Using Lily to train the trainer.

Taking us both to "another level".

FIRST, Sue tied two finger holes in Lily's light 4' leash. The theory being that with a short, light, loose leash I will always know where my dog is without having to always be looking or obviously aware. She gave me three options and, after working all three, I came to the conclusion that I was being "led" to arrive at anyway....the shorter length of the three.

We worked over 30 minutes doodling within a 20' square area, proving once again that you needn't take a 2 mile walk for an effective and meaningful LLW training session. Once again, Sue didn't let me (or Lily) get away with ANYTHING!

Left turns, right turns, about turns, figure 8s, fast, slow. Tripping all over Lily if she was not in position. Teamwork. Teamwork on both ends of the leash. I could hear Wendi's voice, "No Bubamenintzes". I could hear Sue's voice, "Don't settle".

That's always the secret, isn't it? The source of problems. Settling for less.

No more "subliminal training" for us!

Relax: Level 2: Step 1: LS/SA

Just spent around 20 minutes shaping Lily to relax. Never did get RELAX. But shaped for lying on her side, no whining or whimpering, tail relaxed (criteria). It was not easy.

Stitch and Sue on the next sofa. Shayla came down from upstairs during that time. The best I could do was 5 seconds duration of that criteria.

No sense looking for "loose strings" yet. We were just working on Lily "assuming the position". But this is my kind of evening training. I get to stretch out on the sofa. I want to teach as much of this new behavior as possible while Sue is here to get all the pointers I can.

Sue photographed the series of the training progression for the new book.

NOTE: After "sleeping" on this behavior, Lily now, more times than not, quickly assumes the "roll" position and gets ready to relax. Time for L2: Step 2 - interspersing play with relax. This I will try to catch on Flip.