Second and Third Training Session - Bill - Stand on backpaws on Cue

Second Training Session 29 Nov 09

• 1X10
• Stayed on just nose touching the target stick. The session were more to show off to my husband, Andrew, how clever Bill is so I decided to not raise the criteria :-).

Third training session 30 Nov 09

• 3X10
• On the first set I decided to move around in the kitchen.
• On the second set I decided to raise it a little bit so that he had to stretch upwards in order to reach it. All of this went fantastically well.
• On the third set I decided to slowly moving the target stick in order for him to follow it.
• I added a last set of 1X5.

Analysing

• I raised the criteria far too quickly on the third set. I almost immediately got grabbing it with his mouth and sometimes he did not fully understand what I meant.
• Therefore I added a last set of only 5 repetitions where I had it still on his level in order to try and mend anything that might have gone wrong.
• Results will show in the next training session.

Bill is learning to stand on his back paws on cue

Goal: To do it both on a hand signal and on a verbal cue. Idea is that he should remain there until new cue or finishing cue.


General steps for shaping the behaviour:
1. Capture the behaviour with nose target
2. Work away the target little by little
3. When anticipating clearly add visual cue -hand signal
4. Add in default behaviour (standing in front of me), click and treat for that


Phase 2:
1. Reward for staying up, add time slowly.


Phase 3:

1. Proof in different situations


Phase 4:
1. Add verbal cue where distractions are low
2. Mix with default
3. Mix with default and visual cue
4. Proof the new cue in different situations


29-11-09
First training session- P1
I thought he might do it as a behaviour he would offer naturally. Why I thought that is because he is often doing it in various situations. He has got an amazing balance and is so agile. He is contact seeking, he is alert and he is so keen to learn things. He has got a lovely balanced temperament with a good ability to concentrate in my opinion.


So I thought I would like to develop some of his ability and see what we can do. I was very pleased with the first training session.


Training

• He did not offer the behaviour.
• I instead introduced a nose target to him which he more or less got straight away.
• We did 3 X 10 of the nose target and the last session we started to move it to different places and heights.
• All went very well and he worked really concentrated. Very quickly you could see him deliberately choosing the target rather than sniffing it out of curiosity.

Plan for next training

• To start move it around to teach him to follow it.

Conclusion:
What a lovely dog he is. Of course I already knew this but you know how it is when the feelings just overwhelmes you and you feel like you have the most clever, fantastic dog in the world. I am sure you all know what I am talking about. He is so lovable and we always have so much fun together :-). Looking forward to next training session. Will be my rewards for writing concentrated on my Assignment in Animal Behaviour for a while :-).

Jihaaa!!

Finally found out my password and username to this blog. Was not too hard actually :-).

So what has happened since last time? A lot.

Things that comes to mind at this late hour:

1. Started Animal Welfare Studies at Anglia Ruskin University
Feels like a natural and interesting way to go in order to go into Animal Behaviour on a more academic level. I really enjoy it.

2. Been to CAP3 training course in July in the Cotswolds at Learning About Dogs. Kay Laurence Clicker Assessment Program in this case led by Helen Philips, author of Clicker Gundog. Fantastic course. I so thoroughly enjoyed it and now Elsa and I are working away towards our CAP3 award.

3. I do not train with Dave Martin any longer which means that I do not have anybody I can do regular bite work for the Schutzhund training with :-(. Together with everything else that happens I therefore have put the Schutzhund training to one side. At least for the time being.

4. I am planning a boxer litter this spring. I am very excited about this!

5. I have applied to the Championship Show Judge course given by the Swedish Kennel Club. I have the Schnauzer-Pinscher Club recommending me as well as Mr Bo Skalin.

6. Charlie and Bill are both qualified to Crufts 2010.

7. I have started to do some Charity work for RSPCA. At this moment in time I am giving a puppy training course to the volonteers and to some new owners.

8. I have successfully worked with several boxers on one to one basis . I have also worked with several other breeds and cross breeds but mainly Rottweilers, AmStaff mixes and Mastiff crosses.

These are the things I immediately come to think about.

Hopefully I will let you know what happens soon again.

Ewa xx

Updates on its way

Hi dear blog,
I have not updated you for quite some time now even though Elsa and I have been doing training. She is coming on well in the bite work and we are now waiting for the right Intermediate sleeve to arrive. I cannot wait to see how she will react to it.

Tracking has been going a lot better too. She is much more concentrated, however I feel it is quite a lot of work left. Main thing, just keep doing it.

My thoughts are to write about our last sessions here soon so that I keep the blog/training diary up to date.

Elsa is in season now so it has not been much training lately since no clubs in this country would really welcome a bitch in season. She has, to be honest, been quite low as well so I have just done little things inside and on walks.

The weekend coming I am off to Slovakia and ATIBOX IPO World Championships to support my Swedish friend, Tobbe, who competes. I do not think there are anybody else from Sweden competing, but I will know when I get there. I wish Tobbe and Kaxe the best of luck!

Default, Present and Articles

Pure clicker training theories applied
1. Refine the Present position (sitting in front of me)
Elsas default position is standing in front of me. From there I can ask her to do the things she has on cue.

I am trying to refine the present position since I have noticed a little bit of a confusion there for both her and me, to tell the truth.

So a lot of training on the default position. Click, throwing treat, click feeding in front.

I make it fairly easy for her to never throw the treat behind me so she has to round me when coming back into the default position again.

Default is something we worked on before but not so much lately.

Such a good training in order to refine the cues for different behaviours.

Plan:

• Strengthen default
• Add "Come" which always will mean coming into present position.

Training:

• Three sets of 10 repetitions.
• About 7 default and 3 "come" out of the 10 repetitions.

Analysing:

• My god, why do I not do this kind of training more! It has such and effect and it makes it so, so clear to Elsa and actually myself as well.
• She got it quicker than I thought.
• Will continue to strengthen default for many reasons: one for the training goals for competition level and one for having her 100% ready for the CAP3- week for Kay Laurence in July.
• I am going to change "come" to "hit" because I use come in so many other situations.

2. Laying down for tracking articles
Plan:

• Make the trackin articles a cue for laying down. I start with the leather and I assume that she quick will generalize to the other since they are always the same shape.
• Show her the article - say lay down "Ligg" - click and throw reward (chicken) behind her to get her moving up and down for many opportunities to train.
• 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Training:

• First she had a willingness of sniffing and possibly biting the article. I held it away from her so she could not reach it. I have the feeling that sniffing or biting in it would be very rewarding in itself therefore I avoid that totally.
• I show her the article and then say Lay down "Ligg", click and throw a piece of food behind her.
• Just after a few times she lays down directly when she sees the article.
• I put it on the floor and she lays down immediately when she comes close to it.
• A few times she was a bit too close and I moved it away from her and rewarded her for laying down.

Analysing

• I will not move away the article and reward if she is too close. I still think it was good to do at first since she needed strenghening in that she was doing the right behaviour. I did not want any confusion there.
• I will instead take it away from her sight and start again. Idea is that she will understand that if she is too close there is no reward, same with if she is too far away of course.

Another thought is that I should really use the labels on this blogg to organise the training to be able to follow up what I did last time within a certain behaviour. No shit Sherlock.

Harder Pillow

Thursday 14th of March
Tracking and Bite work

Tracking
Plan:
Scent pad, wiggly track, about 40 paces, food in every foot step and Caesar yummy food in the end. Controlled start. Play with Kong after.

Training:
About 20 minutes old.
Dave laid a bent track (for Swedish readers - serpentin eller slangespår) with a small scent pad to start with then wiggling away for about 40 paces. Food in every foot step. A Caesar food, half open, in the end.

Controlled start. I lay the lead underneath her, between legs and I sit her down. She loves tracking and I start her by giving her the command "Varsågod". She knows exactly what the pole means and what the scent pad means, she left the scent pad for the track before she had eaten everything in the pad. That is good. Shows she is more interested in the track than the pad.

The wiggly track was very good for her, I could clearly see that she assumed the track would continue straight on. She did well, I must say. She is calm and happy and works her way to the end.

A couple of paces before the end she got the smell of the Caesar and wanted to go there with high nose. I stopped her and quite immediately she put her nose to the ground and sniffed the few steps that were left.

Analysing:

• Do not need scent pad any longer.
• Caesar food should be closed since the smell is too much at this stage.
• The ready made chicken tit bits I used are really good for tracking. Possibly slightly bigger pieces.
• Controlled start is very good for focus.
• Wiggly track is very good at this stage, gets her to concentrate on the track more.

Bite work
Plan:
Introduce harder pillow. Cap her concentration by laying down. Also try a few bark and launching in.

Training:
Mixed outcome really. I was so happy she bite the harder pillow like nothing. She had no problem with it what so ever. That was very good.

1. Cap - laying down and bite

We wanted her to cap her concentration and bite from there. We have seen from earlier trainings that she does that best from laying down. We want her to bite on Daves' movements.

I told her to lay down at first, she got too disturbed by that and did not bite well.
When she instead did it herself a few times she got the bites really nice, full and hard.
After that I could tell her to lay down and she got it right.
It was a little bit uneven. Sometimes she got it really good and sometimes not. After a while she had a consistency of good bites about 3-4 times in a row and we stopped there.

2. Barking first and then bite the pillow when Dave moves

My little polite girl thought it was a bit strange at first to bark at Dave to get him to play with the pillow.
However, she got the picture fairly quickly. We made it easy for her with just one bark and then bite. She tried to cheat a few times but I think she also got that after a while that it is not until Dave moves she can take the pillow. I just held her back when she tried to cheat.

Analysing:

• She gets more and more concentrated and her drive to bite the pillow becomes stronger the more we work with her. I did not expect anything else but you never know. I am happy about that.
• Need more training on the cap and full bite.
• Need more training on the bark and full bite.
• Next training will be on this pillow again (the harder one) and we will mix some barking and some capping then again.
• Next step will be an intermediate sleeve. Probably next week or the week after. I did buy one, Euro-Joe, but it is too fat and does not look anything like the full sleeve.
• Must buy a Gappay (spelling??) intermediate sleeve and return the other.

Obedience training

Training Wednesday 13th of March, Ranmore, Equestrian centre, Dorking, UK
Obedience.
Nice down stay amongst other dogs doing heel work. I was close to her but very relaxed.

Warming up and then some jumps. These jumps are for Working Trials so they look slightly different. She did the clear jump very nicely and she cleared the long jump with ease. Not the full lenght I should say but soon I would say she could be there. I have not paid that much attention to the long jump since we now are doing Schutzhund and that does not exsist there. However, fun training that does not interfere with Schutzhund training.

Lovely contact and willingness to work. It was a little while ago since we were amongst that many dogs and also in an equestrian centre with all smells. So I could sense a slight insecurity but also happy to be there. She did nice heel work with good position and contact. I would say that 30 paces feels very secure now. Working on further and she is coming on well.

We did sit on the move and lay down on the move.

Introduced recall from laying down. Totally new since I always, always have come back to her. She was ok with it.

Still working on the present positon - when she is sitting in fronto of me.

Coming into the side is coming on very well. I have had a help with my left hand and I now do just a little finger movement. She sits straight when she is coming in.

Sit from heel needs a little work on. She sometimes does not sit straight. On the other hand, must be fair to her, I cannot remember I actually have worked on that very hard. She sat down quite naturally from the beginning when I stopped so I have left it as such.

Lie down on the move needs a little work on as well. She is very stable, does it every time, wherever we are etc but it is not really as fast as I would like it.

Then we have our retrieve. She does it but oh, I need to work on her holding it properly. Feels like a little wind could blow the dumbell out of her mouth. I will actually build in some pulling games around it and exchange for kong and then exchange kong for treat. With previous dogs I would never have dreamt about building in such much fight and pulling game atmosphere around the dumbell. However, with this little girl I have the feeling she will still give it up easily but it will possibly make her hold it more firmly. As it is now, it looks like she is going to spit it any second. She doesn't but it is very close. She looks like she really doesn't want to have it in her mouth.

Over all I was very pleased with my little girl.

Bill
Bill was taken to the baby class the hour before Elsa does her training. He was as good as gold and I really cannot complain about much at this moment in time. I train him to keep kontakt and to be confident around other dogs. I also train him to stand for show. Neither is a problem. He is such a happy little fellew. He has lost three teeth now. Little baby boy.