10/02/2024
Bird in the training room with a bird dog? Guess we're diving HEAVILY into distraction today...Layla and her handler did an AWESOME job applying reasonable impulse control expectations with high levels of reinforcement for this very difficult task.
How do you train a bird dog to stay put instead of chase a bird? There are 5 major components we had to consider here:
1. Distraction - how distracting is the bird? Is it flying or being still?
2. Distance - how close is the bird to the dog, and how close is the handler?
3. Duration - how long can we reasonably expect the dog to show us impulse control, and how long can the dog go between reinforcements?
4. Do we actually have a reinforcement that competes with this dog's innate desire to capture and retrieve this particular distraction?
5. Management and safety - we would not have attempted this without the proper tools in place to interrupt if Layla tried to get the bird. The leash clipped into the front harness, and Layla's handler having a strong leash lock in place made for an easy and safe interruption if needed.
In this case, Layla could be expected to hold a sit-stay on the cot for about 15-30 seconds, depending on distance and distraction, with lots of treats for maintaining position within those 15-30 seconds. After a reasonable duration, she was rewarded with the next best thing to retrieving the bird, and that was chasing after a HIGH value treat in the opposite direction. Layla already had a strong sit-stay behavior before we incorporated this level of distraction.
P.S: The bird is safe and currently flying around the training room while Lori tries to coax it out before the next client arrives 😅
