Tuesday, February 11, 2014

2 Years: Training - February 10th - 11th, 2014

This will make flying easier!
Monday

Jack has a short week with me and I want to build more of his tasks.  He's doing so well with his training I figure we are about 2 months out from his graduating.  I do have some tightening of his retrieve, his tug tasks and his public behaviors to do, but he's doing his job at home and with his handler and he's just building experience now.  What an amazing boy!

Jack will be staying home come Wednesday due to my having a long afternoon of appointments which would leave him crated for most of the afternoon and Ronda picking him up without me.  On days like that we leave him at his home to practice his staying home without people and to reduce the travel Ronda has to do picking him up.  Thursday he flys out with Ronda for a long weekend with her and won't return until the following week.

Today we worked 5 Rounds of Retrieve.  Ronda and I discussed what Jack can and can't retrieve just yet and what she'll need him to pick up for her.  I had worked on laundry and shopping last week with Jack and built on tug tasks.  He had been opening the fridge and taking things out of the dryer for me and I was very pleased with his skills.  Ronda had mentioned he wasn't picking up credit cards or coins yet and I said I would revisit those items and work on them.

Today Jack was more of a "let's see" training session than actually training.  I dropped a quarter and clicked any nosing, mouthing and working on the coin.  In less than a minute he picked it up and put it in my hand.  We did this for a total of 1 minute and then I got out a nickel and he picked it up without problems and the same with a dime.  Coins just need practice in more locations on more surfaces.

I then got a credit card and we worked on that. He can pick one up if he can get the edge.  I can't seem to catch is tongue touching it to lift it yet, but he jumped to the task and worked hard on it.  I put tape on the card to lift it off of the floor slightly and worked on that for 1 /12 rounds.  I then got out a plastic egg and worked on a soft mouth.  His problem is, he crunches things he puts in his mouth and in his excitement can't seem to solve why I haven't clicked.  I used a NRM in this event.  Whenever he bit down or crunched the plastic egg I said softly, "no" and whenever he held it without biting down I clicked and rewarded.  I had him taking it from my hand and not picking it up just yet, but will work it to the floor and get a clean pick up of the egg.  Once we have that he'll be able to problem solve and pick up anything and do so without crunching it.

For the last round I worked on his licking my hand an catching the tongue flick to help him with the credit card problem.  He was getting the idea and I'll put the action on cue to help him solve issues that his tongue can solve.

I want to talk about the NRM.  It's called a No Reward Marker and sometimes a problem, such as his happy "I'll just bite down on this" mode can be more clearly explained with one without loosing his joy of the task.  A soft NRM that doesn't frighten the dog can give the dog information they may need.  For Jack he hasn't, for months, solved the problem of why I don't click when he bites down on something.  To stop the pencil from flipping into his molars I did both an NRM and held the pencil in a way that prevented him doing so.  Once that happened he was able to progress on duration with me.  If ever I saw him flinch or withdrawal when a soft NRM is used (which is rarely used when training overall) I would stop using it.  Jack was upbeat, but I could see the gears working suddenly and each NRM resulted in a softer hold on the plastic egg.  I doubt I will need to use it for another lesson, just this one to get the idea that I didn't want him to "break" the egg.

I don't use NRMs often, but I do use them when my timing is off due to my disability.  It just feeds a tiny more bit of information in without harming the thrill of learning.  Emma cannot handle ANY NRMs and Malcolm hand handle a firmer NRM than Jack; so for each dog I approach according to how they learn and don't use NRMs all the time - only in a final fine tuning stage to feed in information I couldn't due to my timing issues.  It works for me, but may not for someone else and I recommend avoiding them if possible - which I try to do as much as possible myself.

Tuesday


Jack - Task Training


Remember that scene in Jurassic Park III when the
pterodactyl turned to the camera? I am having Déjà Vu.
We had a slow start to the day and I nearly decided not to train the dogs, but decided to do it anyway and I am so ever glad I did.  Amazing things happened with all three dogs that would NOT have had I chosen to be lazy today.

Jack is having a "rough" time again.  Both Ronda and I have discussed it and each time her pain levels rise to a certain level, which they have, he becomes more withdrawn and a little shy and just seems sad over all.  He's highly sensitive and being with her all evening in pain and me all day in pain and being in tune with both of us makes it hard on him.  Play and goofiness for him is an important outlet and we both try very hard to let him just be a dog whenever we can.

You'll note I have attached a video and I actually talked through it explaining what I am doing.  Today I was working with Jack on fine tuning tasks and seeing where we are with certain tasks or skills  In the first section Jack is learning to hold a plastic egg in his mouth without crunching it or splitting and will learn to pick it up without harming it.  Does Jack need to know how to pick up an egg?  No.  Should Jack pick up an egg?  Yes.  Why, because if Jack can pick up a raw egg he can pick up anything without harming it.  So, we work on the plastic egg puzzle and he's making wonderful progress.

Again, you'll hear a soft NRM and if you watch his body language it didn't shut him down or send him into an emotional tail spin, but it did give him information and though you can't see his face, I saw him turning gears and figure out what was happening and change how he approached the problem.  We made progress because of it, which for Jack was important information.  If you watch me with Malcolm and Emma, I am not using an NRM but just giving them more information.  Jack is at a different stage of confidence in his skills and a mild, none threatening NRM simply gives him a bit of information he was missing, where for Malcolm and Emma it would be the same as a slap in the face.

Please don't use NRMs all the time when working a lesson.  If using one the dog doesn't respond well and pulls out of the lesson or becomes shy about the lesson, then stop.  NRMs are a tool that if used improperly can shut a dog down and set them back on a lesson.

Jack will not be returning this week.  He will spend tomorrow at home and fly out Thursday for a trip to the Midwest.  I gave him a big puzzle to solve while he's away and hope to see him solve it by the time he returns.

It's been a fun two days with a lot of progress for Jack.  This end stretch of training is such a joy and I love watching a dog who can and does learn a new task in a matter of minutes because the foundation of learning has been laid.

Have a great trip you two!


Level 1
Zen Target Come Sit Down
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed

Level 2
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step 3 4 2 1 Completed
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 1 Completed 2 5 1
Jump Relax Handling Tricks Communication
Step 1 4 Completed 1 4

Level 3
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step 0 2 2 1 0
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 1 0 0
Jump Relax Handling Retrieve Communication
Step 0 0 Completed 2 0

Level 4
Zen Come Retrieve Target Relax
Step 0 0 5 0 0
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 0 0
Handling Communication


Step Completed 0


No comments:

Post a Comment