I purchased some children's puzzles at the local dollar store, because they came in metal tins (and didn't have the smell that altoid tins have). Dumped the puzzles out into bags for the kids, and started working with our tins.
Our first day went very well. It didn't take me long to get her from 1 tin with food, to 2 tins, one with food and one without. She was 100% right. I removed the tin with food, put in a new '2nd tin' that only had my scent and allowed her to work. Still 100% correct. Her natural behavior is to pick the tin up and give it to me, so that's what I accepted. I am NOT looking for a formal retreive, this is not currently about the retreive, but rather about her choosing the correct scent. We worked up to 4 tins, and only a handful of mistakes were made. I did not record that session, and thus, couldn't data-keep.
However, being one who LOVES data, I recorded this session, and then sat and made myself a data spreadsheet. It may not tell me anything now, and it may not tell me anything later. But hopefully, when a "big" problem crops up one day, I will be able to look back at my data and see where the issue started, and then have a more clear idea of how to resolve it. But truth be told, I'm a science geek and I love data. :)
We start with our puzzle tins again. No food in them, simply using my scent on the Dora puzzle. We start with 4 tins, and quickly move to 5 tins. On the 8th rep, I replaced the Dora tin with a new tin that had my scent. It took her 2 seconds longer on this rep, but she was still confident in her indication and selection (and she was correct). After that, we changed to canning rings. This was new, and again, her first rep took 5 seconds, instead of her usual 3 seconds. After that, her next 2 reps were 3 and 2 seconds respectively.
I noted the following parameters: Rep #, number of objects, if she was correct on her first presentation, where the hot object is located relative to others, and to her approach, the time she was on the pile working it, and the time she presented me with her choice. If there were any other oddities, they were noted too. Overall, this session went 8.5minutes. The first error does not show up until 5:23, it took her 6 seconds to choose the wrong one, and then 5 seconds to find the correct one. :)
The hot canning ring is marked with blue sharpie, from long long ago. The sharpie should not be a noticeable smell to any effect.
My goal is to have Fizz working a full Utility pile of metal & leather articles by the end of January. I will be curious to see how her percentage correct changes, and if her time in finding the right article improves or not.
Of note in this session: Rep #4, she mouths the correct tin, then goes to check the others before bringing me the correct one. Rep #12, I flung a canning ring too far, it was about 3ft from the pile (off camera). She comes in, scoops it up and brings it to the pile, and then immediately puts it down and brings me the right one. Her presentation of her choice is very clear: she makes strong eye contact with me while distinctly presenting me with the object. In scooping up the wayward ring, she never made eye contact, and never showed me any interest. It was very typical of her 'around the house' carrying behavior, and clearly NOT a presentation to me of choice. At Rep #14, she makes a wrong choice, and very clearly presents me with the incorrect ring. Big difference from the 'wayward ring.'
In Rep #16, there's an interesting behavior of piling together the incorrect rings. Never once does she make eye contact with me, or any indication that she thinks those are 'right.' She's just busily moving them, and then grabs the right one and brings it to me. Dogs fascinate me in their behaviors. We took a play break at that point with an old SchH tug from Frol-dawg. :) On Rep #17, she presents me with 2 incorrect rings. Interestingly, I had just moved those rings, and touched them more solidly than the others that I moved around. :)
The video shuts off at rep 21, I know we did at least 5 or 6 more, and they were all correct. In the last recorded rep, she starts to grab the right one, bonks it under my leg, and then seems unable to find it. I waited this out, and she did figure it out. One other missing rep, she has 2 rings in her mouth (b/c they were touching).....recognizes that she has 2, puts them both down and only presents me with the correct one. GOOD girlie!! :)
We had a lot of fun doing this, and can't wait to work on more! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment