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.