Some new concepts

Hi Kaye,

Last night's session seems really important. I need to go through it again in my mind and look at the notes but so much good practical stuff came out of our discussion. It seemed a bit funny having Fido so very fast asleep. His first full body clip really took it out of him unit we got to the park across the road from  your place. He really lit up and stayed lit up til about 11pm. He managed a personal best in ‘ping pong ball retrieval’ and has been pretty lively today as well. Perhaps the ‘low drive’ I complain about and fear is a bit heat related.

You emphasised the ‘release’ last night again. Train and then set him free. Here the language seems to be very important. ‘Off you go’ sounds like a command rather than permission. ‘I’ve been toying with ‘at ease soldier’. I know we need levels of release. With Pep I used ‘OK mate’ to mean do your own thing. I’ll need to settle on words for ‘you are free but don’t go too far I might need you soon’ and you are ‘dismissed’. I have  a lot of trouble using the words if they don’t feel right. With the horses they get a pat on the forehead to say ‘you are off duty’.

It was very useful to discuss my training emphasis last week. I had to get up to speed with the lead for puppy pre-school and I decided to do less drilling sit/stand/lie down/high five and more play games i.e.. Tugging and retrieve. I have been concerned Fido is so laid back he might be happy for me to do all the work, so I’ve been really looking for ways to motivate him. He is definitely getting more food oriented (tuna and chicken cat food woke him up at puppy school and roast chicken has recently become a big hit). You pointed out that he needs both the motivating games and the ‘drill’ style games. You also mentioned there would come to a time in his development, where the onset of adolescence would cause him to forget a lot of his training and that it would be much easier to reinstate it if the process of learning has been well established.

We are hoping for good scores in all of the 10 basic building blocks while he is a puppy and is still offering so much. You said ‘Get him hooked on the the Building Blocks’. I’m aiming to get more creative in relation to this. Your push game with the treat under a take away container will be fun. I haven’t got to it today because I’ve been ‘crate training’ (in case I need to take him to Qld to help my parents). We also had an extremely fun ‘on lead’ visit to the hardware store/saw mill in preparation for the  working bee tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll finish a secure dog a yard out the back door.

As I’m writing this Fido has taken himself into the crate and gone to sleep at my feet. He got his dinner from my hand, lured in and then rewarded for staying and now he reckons it is a pretty cosy place to curl up. So much training is just ‘the set up’! I tossed a bit of liver in after him, told him how clever he is and haven’t even left my seat, or stopped typing. As soon as I feel he’s ready I’ll start shutting him in for the night. If he’s used to sleeping in his crate before we fly up to Qld. it will make the trip, and the stay, much easier.

It was very useful to hear about your ‘Holy Grail’ of training concepts. That one day, performing the task will be sufficient ‘reward in itself’  because of all the conditioning with food, play and praise from me. (our relationship)
You explained that ‘sitting’ for instance is the activity from which all good things come. He sits to greet, for a pat, to receive his dinner etc. That would be a nice touch for retrieving games wouldn’t it; to make ‘sit’ the ‘default’ before the ball is thrown again.

Your explanation of the going to bed ‘rolling up in a blanket’ was great. It really makes sense to break the activity down and to recognise that holding the blanket is ‘retrieving’ and rolling is body position etc.

I also found it very useful when you pointed out that ‘rewards’ are ‘an activity’ not a ‘thing’. So food is ‘being allowed to eat’ and games are being ‘allowed to play’. I’m not sure exactly why that seems so important but I have a hunch it totally reorients the intention behind the reward. Fido ‘earns’ and I ‘grant a privilege’ eliminating the possibility of training sessions degenerating into demeaning activities like bribery and pleading! It is so easy to ‘want so much’ that dignity is compromised. That is a terrible thing in animal training.

That leads me to our discussion about only using the word for a requested action, only if you’d bet $100 it will happen! So we set up a stimulus that is likely to cause the dog to do something we want. We train this until the action is reliable and worth a decent bet and then ‘charge the word’ with a ‘successful execution’. I have definitely been way ahead of the process, using words when my 13 week old pup is not fully established. Recall, coming when called, is heavily emphasised in puppy class. I often take him for a pee and can’t compete with smells and his attraction to go and see Pepper. Sometime  I call him and he just sits down and looks. I did the trick you suggested of ‘running off the other way’ and hiding behind a tree today and that worked a treat. I have been lost in this ‘positive reinforcement dog training’ to find appropriate ‘consequences’ for when things don’t go according to plan. In horse training I would try to make sure a consequence matched every response the horse made. Consequences would either make the horse more comfortable or less comfortable. When I walk away from the pup he becomes less comfortable and chooses to remedy the situation by trotting up to me so he puts some value on ‘being close’. Puppy dependence affords one fine opportunity. I can see it diminishing day by day but I will be sure to use it while I can.

We also discussed the four aspects of stimulus control. I think it was that we teach the dog to react to a stimulus, but then training is not complete until the dog only does the action as a response to the stimulus. Never with no stimulus, never to another stimulus and I’ve suddenly gone completely brain dead so I’ll come back it.

Thank you so much for last night! It will take a bit of digesting. It will be great fun working out how to put it into practice with my crazy little mate.

Cheers,

Richard