Fizz and I haven't worked on backing up in a very long time. No particular reason, it just kinda fell off the radar. Went back to it, and this is our first session back. Recently, we've been working on 'down' a lot and you can see her offering downs frequently. The biggest challenge for me is waiting this out, and resisting trying to lure her back up. I am not walking into her to get her to move back b/c I want her shifting her weight back, which comes when she makes the decision on her own to walk backwards.
Dogs learn best when the choices are purely theirs. Think of the last time you followed someone to a ... party, new training facility, trial, a friend's house....anywhere. If you then needed to leave before your 'guide' was ready to go.........how confident were you in how to get back to your start? Luring creates behaviors that LOOK good, that seem 'strong,' but then when the lure is gone.......the behavior quickly falls apart because it wasn't really learned, it was simply 'done.'
I have been pouring through my learning theory books, trying to find the scientific explanation of a phenomena seen here, and I can't find the silly thing I'm looking for....how frustrating! But essentially, there is a double dip in learning a new behavior. The behavior seems to start coming together and then suddenly 'disappears.' The key to it is to wait out this first dip. There's a scientific explanation for the processing that is going on, at a neuron level....but as I said, can't find it. :( After the first processing, the behavior grows in strength an appearance again. There is a second dip, but of less deterioration than the first, and then the behavior grows again at a much more rapid rate. One of the keys to training is being willing to wait out those dips, to know them for what they are and to know that 'it will get better.'
In the backing video, there are 2 significantly long times in which Fizz is in her offered down and I have to wait her out. It seems interminable when working through it, and admittedly, patience is not my strong suit. However, I can also see, in re-watching the video, that the time she spends in down is quickly shortening because in this session, down is not being rewarded.
This video is long, 8:45, and with a slow connection, may take some time to download.
Fizz and I have been working this week on perch work, to teach hind end movement that will feed into heeling, specifically on maintaining position, making left turns in strong position, and getting into heel from 'around the clock.' In this session, my goal was to get her to start turning in a circle around the pot, independant of me moving. I want my movement and body position to be out of the picture, so that she gets a stronger understanding of her own movement. The past two sessions, we've been really stuck on her depending upon my movement, and I think the reason is that I didn't increase the criteria when I should have, and dug us a rut. However, here, she finally moves out of the rut, very happy to see it! :)
Reading through the Town's conservation commission website the other day, I learned about some new places to hike, one of which is just up the street, about 400 acres. COOL! Was looking for somewhere to wear out Miss Fizz today before finishing up my great-grandmother's cookie recipe. Trail leading back into the woods, 2 ponds that were dug by the Army Corp of Engineers to be skating ponds, land bridge between them.........awesome!
Or so it should have been. Turned out to be a huge disappointment in terms of hiking. :( Beavers had taken over, and trails were gone. We ended up on some deer trails, bushwacking just to wear out the Wuppy.
The above photo is how things started....and quickly deteriorated to this. The spit of land with the day-glow moss....that was our 'trail' through the beaver-generated swamp. :(
Fizz and I next to a recently 'cut' tree. And yeah....you can see why I detest wearing hats. I look utterly stupid in them.
On the way back, we passed through an old gravel/sand pit. Gave me an opportunity to do a bunch of training/work with Fizz in an exciting environment (do you KNOW how much fun sand-eating is for a 15wk puppy???). Worked on reward zone on both left and right, call once recalls, collar grabs, and several rounds of hide and seek. Finally, we discovered the ultimate treasure: a water bottle with ice in it! I released her to attack it and boy did she have fun. Awesome reward to end our training session! :)
I need some updated photos of Fizz, but I need to get the SLR out.......this P&S don't cut it in my mind for portraits!
Susan Garrett highly recommends video taping your session work, so that you can review it, see what really went on, and have good information for your training log. As I worked this session, it felt like a *huge* fail to me. I felt like we had very few correct responses, and all she was doing was grabbing the empty 'wrong' container. In watching, I see far more correct responses than it seemed when I was training. I'm very thankful for having the video (even if James knocks the camera to the ground), and being able to see that it was better than it felt.
We started last night with working a series of plates, building from 1 to 5. She did very well with that, but not so well with the plastic containers. She kept grabbing empty containers and just settling in to chew on them. I had her on leash last night, so she couldn't really go anywhere with them. Today, while off-leash, we are enclosed in an ex-pen. I did one round of plates this a.m. to warm up, and then tried to work the containers.
Some background info: Fizz had a vet appointment yesterday and received a vaccine. She ate little dinner last night, and even less breakfast this a.m. B/c she's missed 2 meals, she looks rail thin, her metabolism is so high, she can't afford to be skipping meals right now. :( Her energy and attitude have still been good, so I don't think she's ill, though maybe a bit flat from the vaccine yesterday. I would prefer to see a stronger search for the right container, I know she can follow a scent trail and be very focused in doing so. After seeing how today's session went, I will wait a few days before trying this again, AND try using a different treat, perhaps something more enticing.
I've never seen her just go lie down on the floor, and she does several times in this video. That is what makes me think she's a bit flat from the vax yesterday.
Fizz turned 11wks today. I need to get her on the scale, but I'm guessing she's 20+ lbs. We're in another "loooong" spell and whereas Wednes she looked quite fine, on Thurs, she looked as if I hadn't fed her in a week. Egads, I'd pay for that kind of metabolism!!
A few weeks ago, I posted video of Vikka learning a new method to Stand, as taught by Susan Garrett. Fizz is familiar with hand targets, and today I decided to work on teaching her the stand. Her natural "leapiness" fed right into the method, and I have no doubt that once I get my mechanics figured out, this will come right together.
We've been working a lot the past three weeks on value for me, attitude and focus during work, and the fact that work = play = work (Thank you S.G.!!). Fizz is showing me a love of playing and working, and a willingness to take this journey in AKC Obedience with me. I'm so excited!! Here are 3 photos from this afternoon which embody all that we've been working on.
I wanted to start shaping Fizz's retreive today. She already likes to pick up her dumbell and carry it about, including up and over the BOSU (blue side up, non-rocking). Normally to start shaping a retreive, one would start with rewarding even a glance at the db, and then increase criteria to a sniff, a lick, a bite. Because I know she likes to play with it and carry it, I was starting with the criteria of grabbing it with her mouth. No clicker, b/c it's simply too much for me to work (clicker, food, db). So just a verbal marker and feed (today's treats are scrambled eggs.......one of her favorites!).
I had planned to start this an hour earlier. However, as I started gathering stuff, I looked up and there she was, sitting tight on the rocking BOSU. So I decided to work with what she gave me. Got the bowl of eggs, and rewarded any movements or position changes on the BOSU. We had fun playing this game for about 5 minutes. Finally snapped a leash on her, gave her a release cue, and led her off. She really seems to like the rocking BOSU (maybe she wishes for a sailboat rocking on the seas??).
After the BOSU work, we spent some time outside, both potty break and playing. I should have put her up at that point, it was a natural break point in her day. However, she came back in still zipping around, so I decided to pursue my original goal: shaping the retreive. You can see the lower level of "oomph" in her work, due to my poor choice to not put her up, and push forward. Bad trainer!
We had several distractions going on here: 3.5yr old James bouncing from chair to chair, across an end table and jabbering away. The flag outside was whipping in the wind and thwacking the screen (I'm surprised that didn't pick up on the audio feed!), and hubby shows up twice. I had NO idea he'd pet her until I watched this video.......will have to work on that. "No petting puppy when Mommy's training!" :)
There's a DWDH moment to work through b/c of my poor choice in timing. She wasn't showing me great frustration, so I didn't want to end it, I wanted to see her come through it, and she did. I was even happier with her choice to keep working with me the second time George showed up. It had to be her CHOICE, and not me being enticing..........thus no big prey object game with the db to get her back. I want her to work with me because she desires too, and because there is joy in it.....not because of "have to."
Finally, in playing tug, we have a few learning games within the game. Thanks again to Susan Garrett for her awesome leadership and allowing us to watch Swagger in Puppy Peaks. I've learned SO much!!!
I finally found time to review my Crate Games DVD last night, and got Fizz started on the program this afternoon. George had been to Men's breakfast at church yesterday and brought home a 1 gallon ziplock bag full of scrambled eggs.....for training treats! :) Susan Garrett recommends working with a hungry dog, and having excellent treats. Well, we were an hour past Fizz's lunch time today, and I used a combination of scrambled eggs and cut up grilled chicken for treats. Success!!
Fizz has been home for a week now, and in that time, I have not once allowed her to walk out of a crate. Instead, any time I opened her crate, I would lift her out, so that coming out on her own has no value to it, as it has no reward history. With Fizz, this has been easy, she usually sits at the edge of the crate and waits for me to get her. This behavior was already in place while she was with her litter. When ever I went to the puppy pen, she'd come forward, sit and give strong eye contact, and wait to be lifted out. What a girlie!
If you want to know how to implement Crate Games, you'll need to purchase Susan's DVD. While I did record our whole session, I'm not posting it for two reasons: a) it would be large in size, and b) that would be no better than scanning a copyrighted photo and posting the scan......it's flat disrespectful, to say the least. When we started, Fizz had no value for her crate. She's had a few meals in it, but most have been earned through training, and thus fed outside of the crate. After about 20 minutes of work, she now demonstrates high value for her crate, manifesting as not wanting to come out on release word.
C.G. is a wonderful way to start building duration for the sit, for teaching the dog to understand resisting distractions, and that you only come when verbally released. This will transition over to very solid "stays" Note: I don't use the word 'stay' ever in my training, it's a human superstition, not a command. Sit/down/stand means sit/down/stand until I either release you, or give you another cue. Period. Once this duration of behavior is understood, it transitions very well out of the crate, and has great value in Start line stays, obedience work, and general impulse control. A huge "thanks!" to Susan Garrett for her pioneering ways, and this wonderful teaching tool!!
For her socializing "outing" today, Fizz came to church with us. She slept in her crate in the car during the service, and then hung out outside to meet/greet as people left. What a variety of people we met, all ages, quiet people, boisterous kids, those with fascinating scarves (oh BOY said Fizz!), and blowing skirts. She does so well with it all! Yesterday, we went to Team practice at gymnastics, and she was literally swarmed by 1st-3rd grade girls. She loved it, gave lots of licks and shared her puppy fuzz all around. I just love how unbothered she is by anything, and by the restraint she is already showing in not playing with strangers in the same manner that I allow her to play with me (we roughhouse). At pick-up time, we got to meet lots of the Dads, and several pre-teen boys. The 'flooding' continues! :)
One thing I need in Fizz, as my future obedience partner, is lots of body awareness, rear-end movement and proprioception. This is why we're working on the BOSU, I have balance disks to work with, and, we are starting to work on a perch. For now, the perch is a book, as she grows and gains weight/size, the perch will change. The idea of the perch is to teach the dog to move it's hind end in a circle, while maintaining the front paws on the perch itself. You want to see a crossing over motion with the hind feet. This will greatly help during heeling where fine body control is needed in turns, and in the figure 8.
Today's video is our first shaping session. I have not done much pure shaping with her, and was curious to see how willing she is to offer behaviors. Earlier today, we'd been out to "Open Gym" at Em's gymnastics gym. There were 100 kids signed up for the 90min session, plus all their in-two sibs and parents. Hundreds of people.......and you know we had to use that as a socialization opportunity. We hung out at both drop off and pick-up, Fizz met probably 70-80 people: men, women, teens, little kids....it was fantastic! This shaping session is conducted after her post-visit nap.
I have an ex-pen set up in the den, in order to control her access to "fun" things (cords, the rug liner pad, sticks for the fire, etc). This allows both of us to focus unfettered on work, rather than having to re-direct from distraction. Efficient training is good training!
Fizz has had a full two days. We've worked on a lot of training games, including "Its Your Choice" with food on the floor, and Fizz maintaining focus on the food, not giving me eye contact but rather, backing off the food to earn it. We worked on rewards in RZ, and "play with the toy that I have," including switching between toys of various ranks.
Making sure that Fizz gets out to many places, she ran errands in the car (no car sickness!), met the staff in the Church office, staff at pre-school after school finished for the day, and went to the vet for a well visit.
Later that afternoon, we went to the local lake to explore sand, water, and rusty chains. The joys of a 70F day in November!
If you need a "cute puppy fix" video, here's a bit from the lake. :)
This morning, we started with puppy proprioception work, and ground poles in the back yard. Coming in to get breakfast and do some chin heeling to earn it. Fizz works for at least 2 meals a day, if not 3. I'm currently feeding her 4x a day. After Emilie was on the bus, we got out the BOSU. What an incredible way to teach a puppy balance, weight shifts, and general body awareness. Thank you so much to Susan Garrett for this idea! Her Puppy Peaks program is just stuffed with stellar ideas and examples. From the moment I met Fizz, she's shown little issue with anything environmental. Her reaction to the very tippy BOSU is an extension of that fearlessness. She wasn't bothered by it one bit. I think back to having to work with adult Froli on a tippy board before doing agility teeters, what a world of difference! :) This was shot just before lunch, and you can see that once again, my toy does not rank with the puppy crack...........but I was also being a bad trainer and did not have a tug ready, so had to improv (and have since "lost" Vik's favorite fribbee........sigh). My rockin' BOSU girl:
For other environmental stimuli today, we went to check out the Water Dept guy flushing the fire hydrant in front of our house (boy did James think THAT was grand!), and she hung out in an ex-pen while we split wood this afternoon........not at all bothered by the machine, cracking logs or flying bits. Falling leaves magically appearing in her pen were her idea of "awesome!"
Monday, November 7, 2011
Learning through games
One of the things I enjoy greatly about Susan Garrett's work is that the puppies learn behaviors via fun games. I've seen this work so well in my own children that I couldn't wait to apply it to dog training. Her Puppy Peaks program has taught me a lot, now its time to apply it myself! :)
Last night, Fizz had her first session of IYC - Its Yer Choice, in which a puppy who shows self-control then earns exactly what it is that they are restraining themselves from. This is most easily taught with food at meal time when the puppy is really hungry. Fizz worked for her dinner last night, and I was really impressed with how little time it took her to figure out the game.
Today at lunch, we played again. My original hope was to work with food bits on the floor, and work her control that way. However, that wasn't going to well, and since I was trying to stay in a 5 minute time frame for our training, I switched gears, and worked with the food in my open palm (ignoring it earns it).
Below is a video I shot of our session. We started with food in the bowl on the floor, and she remembered last night's session. Ignoring the bowl was not very difficult for her today, though it did require a few hand covers. I then tried a play break, but had a lesser favored toy (I haven't figured out all the toys' rankings yet....she'd only been here 36hrs at the time of this video). For my ignorance, I paid pennance with a pretty good "Dont Wanna, Don't Hafta" moment (aka DWDH). Finally found something else to play with, and she turned right on to it. We had far better switching from food to toy to food to toy earlier in the morning with "better" toys.
After the DWDH, I started working on the open palm with food. She caught on to that pretty quickly and gave me beautiful eye contact when she wanted the piece. Very happy with this!!! Hoping to work it again tomorrow with food on the floor, may try that for breakfast time when hunger is even greater. :)
Fizz has settled right in here with us as if she never knew any differently. None of the household noises phase her at all, she's great with the kids, and Miss Vik thinks she's pretty cute. Because of the size difference in Vik and Fizz, they're not having play time together yet.
Fizz started her training today. Emilie and I worked on restrained recalls. I had freeze-dried turkey liver, aka Puppy Crack, Emilie held her with a hand under her belly and one on her chest. From 5 to 10 feet away, I'd call, and Em would let her explosively release, racing to me. We worked it for about 2 minutes, and then had a great tour of the back yard, and played Leaf Chase. The idea is that she will come to me on the first call of her name, no matter the location or distraction. In order to work up to such a strong recall, I need to put a lot of deposits into that "account" in the Bank of Fizz. We will play recall games 2-3x per day, varrying the games but always having fun and big reward for coming to me. This will build a lot of value for me in Fizz's world.
I also worked on teaching her what her name is. We were out back with low to moderate distraction (the environment). When she was a few feet away from me, and finishing sniffing something, as her head came up, I called her name once, and then fed her puppy crack when she came to me. She caught on to this quickly! We'll work on it more around the house tomorrow. I'll keep a pocket full of various treats and any time her distraction level is low and she's near to me, I'll call her name and feed (or offer a game of tug).
Our final training session was playing Susan Garrett's "Its Your Choice" (aka IYC) with her dinner kibble. She was very excited to see her evening meal. I took a roughly half-filled 1/4C scoop into the den and sat on the floor, she followed quickly with me. I offered her two pieces of kibble individually, in order to get her interest up. Then, as she approached the scoop, I put my hand covering it. She spent a solid 45-60 sec trying to get into that scoop: shoving her nose between my fingers, biting on my fingers, and finally, digging furiously at me with two paws.
As soon as she gave up the digging and laid still, I said "yes!" smiled, and quickly grabbed a piece of kibble with the other hand and fed it to her. She went right back to trying to get into the scoop, and worked even harder. However, this time, she stopped and looked at me. I already had a piece of kibble in my hand and immediately put it in front of her nose.....she snarfed it right down. The light went on, and she'd look at the kibble scoop, then back at me. Each time she looked at me, I'd say "yes!" and feed. I was able to take my hand off and away from the scoop, which was sitting mere inches from her on the floor. She stopped looking at it all together and I jack-potted her. One more attempt to get into the scoop, followed by a very solid sit and look at me for several rewards. As she held my gaze, I told her "get it!" and released her to the final few pieces that were in the scoop. This whole session lasted 4 minutes.
VERY happy with how well she did! The lightbulb moment in IYC was a lot of fun to see.
Tomorrow's plans include more recall games, more Name Game, and teaching a nose touch to palm. Also hoping to start Crate Games, now that food drive is showing up strongly.
