Bear was very nervous of Lena in her rain coat this morning, so we spent some time working through it, as well as having Oscar present as an added distraction. We would approach, reward a few times, and then move away to relieve the pressure and give him a break. Once Bear was comfortable with Lena standing still, we progressed to having her moving, and at the end we had a stranger pass by which was another extra thing to work through. Very proud of how well he handled all this.
Heelwork practice with Cruze today. Had a great day training despite the rain. Thanks @nzwolfedogs for filming 🎥
Beth demonstrating one of our favourite games for increasing engagement; ready... get it! One thing I actually really like here is that she misses where the treat lands a couple of times, and instead of searching for ages she quickly checks in with me, which prompts me to throw another treat. Although you could say this might indicate a lack of persistence in finding the treat, I think it shows some intelligence. Why waste time searching for a lost treat when she can simply offer eye contact and get a new one?!
Expanding on visual targeting with Cruze, working on switching between looking at the target and looking back up at me in heel. We also vary the pattern a lot so its not too predictable. This keeps him focused and listening closely, reducing the risk of him anticipating the release cue and wanting to immediately break position every time he's asked to target.
Is your training effective?
This video shows the first 2 minutes of Indi's training session today. Upon getting out of the van, she was very externally focused, looking around a lot and struggling to engage with me. So I set up the camera to demonstrate the very very start of how we improve engagement. It's extremely simple, I just wait for her to make eye contact, and when she does I mark "yes!" and reward with food.
What you'll also see in this video is a clear improvement from beginning to end. To show this, I have included a timer in the bottom right corner, which is measuring how long it takes for Indi to offer eye contact each time. I have taken each of these times and separated the 2 minutes into 30-second blocks so that we can assess how effective this training session was.
In the first 30 seconds, she engages twice. The times are 15.42 and 4.32 seconds, and they average out to 9.87 seconds.
30-60 seconds, we get 3 engagements. These take 14.50, 7.21 and 3.80 seconds, averaging 8.50 seconds.
60-90 seconds; 3 engagements, 13.52, 5.77 and 4.06 seconds, averaging 7.78 seconds.
90-120 seconds; 4 engagements, 1.44, 3.48, 2.23, 8.98 seconds, averaging 4.03 seconds.
As you can see, the data shows a gradual increase in the number of times Indi offers engagement, as well as a decrease in the average time it takes her to choose to do so. A great example of positive reinforcement; adding something (a food reward) to increase the frequency of a behaviour (offering eye contact).
Now, you don't necessarily need to be taking down and analysing detailed data like this every time you train, but it IS important that you are regularly reflecting on your progress. Are you seeing more of the behaviours you want and less of the ones you don't? If not, it's time to take a step back, assess why this may be the case, and make changes to your plan if required. If your training is not effective, it's not training!
Spooky starting to show more powerful, consistent barking 🥰
Decoy: @malijp72
One of Cruze's searches from this morning's training. I've left in the original audio so you can hear his sniffle snuffles 🥰
Yesterday I did two searches each with Buddy and Bear, with just one hidden article. Really pleased to see they both remembered the task from last week. Bear is showing really nice stamina and persistence in his searching. Buddy is quick to look to me for guidance if he doesn't find the article immediately, so I start him searching closer to the article and next week I will probably go back to using multiple hides to increase his chance of success.
Huge improvement with Spooky's barking and his grip today. Thanks @malijp72 for really bringing it out of him in this session 😁
Thanks @fh_dogtraining for filming 🎥
A few clips of Awa and his mum doing the engagement game "ready.. get it" during today's coaching session. In the first clip we are practicing in the carpark with minimal distractions while mum learns the mechanics and cues, and in the next two clips we are working with another dog on the field a decent distance away.
Didn't get a lot of footage of Cruze's training today but here's a bit of heelwork.
Really happy with how Spooky's down in motion is coming along. This is a skill that I've always struggled to get with him, but something has clicked in the last few months, and it all suddenly made sense.
Last Wednesday we had a coaching session with Ellie and her mum. I filmed the whole process which consisted of 7 training sessions which range from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. We used my clothing/shoes as a prop, allowing her to gather scent information without the need to approach me, as well as to establish a predictable pattern by using it as a physical marker for both the owner and dog. I am very happy with the progress made during this session and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the next one goes.
The video (sped up) and captions are fairly self explanatory, but below are some further details about the choices made in this session.
- Ellie is off leash to allow her to make choices as to how close she wants to be and whether she wants to leave. She is not a bite risk, so we don't need to use leashes or physical barriers for safety. Her dad is in the other room so that she is not stressed when we put her away in between sessions (she has separation anxiety), and she also feels confident to leave the room rather than being conflicted because she wants to get away from me but doesn't want to leave her mum and be alone in the other room.
- Session 2 was an important one and I think it had a big influence on how well the rest of the sessions went. She comes out with no barking and immediately goes over to sniff my shoes by the door. I have mum put her away immediately as that was a great moment and I don't want to wait too long and risk Ellie getting triggered and barking again. In fear-reactive behaviour cases there is often a big focus on controlling distance between the dog and the trigger, and I don't see a lot of consideration of the duration of exposure being a factor to control and vary throughout the session.
- When Ellie does bark at me there is no direct consequence. We don't ask her to stop, punish her, or physically remove her from the room. I want her to recognise that a) barking is ineffective; it doesn't cause me to move away or leave, and
Cruze working on his left turns in heelwork on Thursday. You'll see me experiment with luring in the turn at one point, but I quickly go back to no lure. Cruze's arousal increases quickly when luring, which is great for getting a nice bouncy trot and good enthusiasm and attitude, but when we're focusing on something that requires precision and body awareness, like turns, the lure has a negative impact as he becomes less conscious of what he's doing with his body as too much of his focus is directed towards following the treat with his front end instead of focusing on how his rear end is moving.
My bouncy, barky boy Spooky 👻 He's getting the hang of the barking now!
Big thanks to @therealkevinlauv for decoying today
Thanks @myminimalinois for filming 🎥
No club training yesterday but I stopped by to do some training with Cruze while his owners were out for the day. Here's a bit of heelwork ⭐️
Spooky found his voice! So happy to have him starting to bark in the bitework. Big thanks to @j0ker_pickle for bringing it out of him 👏
Winnie and her mum learning hand targets for the first time today!
Gus learning hold today as part of his retrieve training. Clever boy!
A long time ago, I taught Spooky to bark on cue but quickly shaped it into a silent air snap by rewarding only the quietest barks until there was no sound. Now I need him to bark again for bitework, and so far, it's proven to be quite a challenge, as the air snap has been so heavily reinforced. We've been shaping the snap back into a bark by doing the opposite, rewarding increasingly loud snaps/growls, and today we finally got a few proper big barks! Once he is consistently barking for a toy that I'm holding, I'll start teaching him to bark at a toy on the ground, or being held by someone else.