Nico #NicciBlinder is on my mind!
He’s been with us for two months now, he’s starting to settle in and we’re starting to see the dog inside the cute appearance. Remembering that in general terms it takes 6 months for them to really settle in.
Here he’s playing, he LOVES to play, has strong toy drive and little or no self control. So little by little he’s learning. Bring toys back and the game can start again. He likes moving toys and is just beginning to enjoy “dead” ones. He’s starting to get the hang of switching from food to toys and back again. He much prefers chasing to thinking and so we separate training into rehearsing and moving on things he knows and learning new.
Awesome little lad 💕
Nico! Nico is on my mind ☺️
In the last week he’s started to play. With toys, with Dexi and with all sorts of things he shouldn’t. It’s starting to feel more like we have a puppy in the house!
Training wise he’s started his journey. Kris plumped for mat work to begin. Being so small it has all sorts of applications and Kris astutely observed that he thinks with his front paws so it was a pretty safe bet.
So he’s beginning the conversation. He’s discovered that he can make treats appear and he’s beginning to persist. He’s on the way 🥳
Nico! Where to begin? A trip to the vets, begin to sort skin and ear infections plus general check up.
Next on the list is create a safe space within our family for him. Make sure he knows where to sleep, a warm safe space, let him come to us, listen when he talks.
Well that happened overnight! By Monday evening it felt like he had always been here. He’s a bright happy little soul, very affectionate (maybe a touch of trauma bond but time will tell) and highly intelligent.
Time to begin training and we start with response to name. His name has been Nico since Sunday ☺️. Dogs don’t “know” their names, it’s simply an association - this sound = that result. So I say his name and reward. I don't care if he's already looking at me, or if he’s already heading towards me, I’m not trying to test him, I simply want him to make an association “Nico” = food in my hand for him. Nothing more. All day every day Nico, feed. Somewhere in the next few months we will have built the association that we need. Think respondent conditioning rather than operant. Bell rings food appears. Done well you get a conditioned response. It’s a little different outside a lab but you can build a similar response if you put the necessary level of reward in. A recall needs to be on the subconscious level we don’t want our dogs to stop and think about it!
Apologies for the poor videos!
This is Min transferring her mat target to the stool. If you remember I tried her with a stool previously and she had no inclination to interact with it.
Several people have suggested luring her onto it, others have asked why I went to all the trouble of shaping a mat behaviour. Others have asked what I have against luring ☺️. The answer is nothing at all. But…..😂
Luring teaches an animal to be passive, wait until the lure is produced, follow it, eat it.
Shaping takes tiny slices of behaviour and builds them into a whole. Along the way dogs learn to offer, to use their initiative, their confidence is built in their decision making ability.
Min has been through a lot in her short life. Born in a kill shelter, dam died giving birth. Rescued 7 days later and brought up in a busy rescue. She’s undertaken a long journey when she was horribly sick and arrived with us at deaths door. She’s since been separated from her sister and she’s only just 6 months old.
The process of shaping a touch to a mat, a smaller mat, transferring to a different mat and finally to the stool that you see here has meant that she has offered 100s of tiny behaviours. Each of those decisions has been rewarded ( well, most of them as I’m very good at setting my environment for success). Those rewards have massively increased her confidence, in us and in her own abilities. Self confidence.
I have nothing at all against luring and if I want it quick and dirty, luring is the tool of choice. If I want understanding, shaping is the tool, to produce the happy pup you see here, throughly enjoying the conversation. 💕
This is Min transferring her targeting behaviour (two paws on) to a new target. I use quick fire rewards in place to build duration and throw rewards away to reset the exercise.
Note - the purpose of target training is to be able to transfer behaviour - in this case to the little step to begin pivot training. Don’t spend so long with a particular target that it becomes part of the cue for the behaviour.
Cues - I haven’t added a verbal cue here because my aim is for her to pivot around a step and so there’s no need. If you want a cue for mat behaviour add it AFTER you’ve transferred the behaviour a few times. It will then be more salient.
A little cue discrimination today, she so loves the game ☺️
Food refusal 3rd session.
Aim hand on floor, open, Mini mouse stationary. ✅
Thrilled as she is clearly working hard and thinking here. Clever pup!
Mat work 2nd session
Mat halved.
ROR 1:3 or at most 1:5
Notes
Mini mouse clearly offers her nice little walk back and this was hard for me as nothing is on cue yet!
When she had been without reinforcement for too long, I threw a freebie to give me something to play with. I won’t do that more then twice in a session as it would mean that my set up needs thinking through.
Clever pup!
Next session smaller mat further away from me.
Mat work 1st session.
I like to have several behaviours on the go, it really helps the pup if they’re worked on in separate sessions and the set up is different.
Aim paw on mat
ROR 1 in 3 seconds
Set up - mat on floor between us, making it likely that she will touch the mat on her way in to see which treats are on offer.
Rewards thrown away to reset.
Notes
Kibble bounces! Oops…
The first reward off to the side was too soon. Once she had the idea she had no problems with it.
She was distracted by an outside noise, which tells me the session was too long.
What to do when it’s not working?
Try something different!
One of the things most puppies need to work on is proprioception. My favourite exercises there are 4 in a box and pivot plus walk back.
Whilst we were there and the other dogs weren’t ☺️. I thought I’d see what I had. Sometimes dogs will offer their paws and you’re off! Mouse clearly has no idea and although her tail is wagging the ROR is way too low for such a young pup.
I’ll get a mat out, be clever in my set up and she’ll soon be offering paws!
The point is that no harm has been done. Always critically assess your sessions, keep them short and sweet, and never be afraid to junk the idea and go back to the drawing board!
Food Refusal 2nd session
1min 40 secs
Aim hold position away from my hand - start to open hand.
ROR (Rate Of Reward) 1 in 3 or at most 5 seconds.
The ROR is vital for young dogs so it’s important to set your criterion to be easily achievable. If it’s not happening drop your criterion. The happy relationship with “training” is more important right now then any aim of a session. The aim is the micro; the associations that we’re building (respondent/classical conditioning ) is the macro. Pavlov is always sitting on your shoulder!
Pointe to note - the open hand is obviously more attractive and so I dropped criterion.
A couple of times I clicked when she was on her way to me but at a good distance. She has a nice reaction to the click and stops which gives me the opportunity to reward her at a distance. This is nice for a pup that’s still a tad unsure.
Love the wagging tail and I place a lot of focus on that to make sure the session is where I need it to be.
1st session 40secs long.
Aim any movement away from my hand with food in. Reward every 5 secs preferably 3 seconds.
Comments:-
Oh isn’t she cute 🥰
We pretty quickly got the initial move away - it is ESSENTIAL that you move your hand forward to reward the dog. Doesn’t matter what the dog is doing at the time, make absolutely sure your hand goes to the dog. The place of reward is critical. If you ask the dog to move forward for reward, forward movement is what you’ll get.
Don’t worry about mistakes - watch carefully I clicked forward movement here several times. Everyone makes mistakes. Every click = reward, every time. Just make sure the rewards go away from you.
I get a couple of sits as we’ve been working on sits in other sessions. She’s still away from my hand and she’s offering me behaviour. The rewards go on the floor so that she stands to eat.
I finish with a jackpot which gives me time to go grab the treat pot before she does!
Clever baby!
I think the reason we all love our dogs so is their empathy.
Fizz left today for her new home and left behind a very sad and lonely Mouse. We went from joyous pups - see video - to lonely pup bewildered without her sister with whom she’s played and fought and cuddled up for 5 months.
All of our dogs stepped up. They’ve wanted little to do with two terrorists causing mayhem and chaos. But a sad pup needing company is evidently a different matter.
Aren’t dogs wonderful 🥰
Watch the body language here - those tails are so expressive!
Fizz (broken coat) has a chew. Mouse (smooth coat) wants said chew ☺️.
I was a little worried about the pups as they grew up without their dam. But they’re doing fine 😄.
They have stunning toy and food drive; Mouse is the faster of the two.
Fostered on behalf of BeKind Rescue
#bekindrescue
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Puppies have arrived!
Thanks go to Be Kind Rescue for saving the girls 🙌
This is Aida and Kris (KISS Dressage) working two paws on, for proprioception and fun! You can clearly see that Aida has got the idea and is throughly enjoying herself ☺️
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