Titles Achieved to date...

Monumental A to Z High On Liberty
NW1, RATI, RATN, RATO, NW2, L1I, RATS, L1E, L1C, L1V, L2C, L2I, L2E, RATM, R-FE/N, PKD-TL, PKD-N, ADPL1, ADPL2, TD, UWP, ADPL3, NTD, TKN, L2V, ADPL4, SDS-N, ADPL5, ADPCH, ADP1(2), ADPL1(GC), ADPL2(2), ADPL2(GC), VPN, AP, UWPCH, ADPL3(2), ADPL3(GC), NC, NI, NE, SCN, SIN, SEN, CZ8B, NV, NN, ADPL4(2), ADPL4(GC), ADPGCH, ADPL5(2), RATCH, CZ8S, AI, TKI, AV, AE, AC, AN, R-FE/X NW3-V, NW3-E, SI, RN, R-FE/NS, CZ8G, SC, SV, SE, SN, SEA, SBN, SWN, SIA, SCA, ADP-1(Th), ADP-2(Th), ADP-3(Th), ADP-4(Th), ADP-5(Th), and ADP-CH(Th)... 81 and counting...

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Learning Styles

This week our class schedule is all turned around, because Ursula is leaving town (for a herding trial). So instead of nosework class tonight, we'll have it tomorrow morning. At first I was really worried about what affect the change to our routine might have on our ORT Friday evening. Now that I've thought about it, I think it will work out well. After nosework class tomorrow morning, we'll go to the fort for a walk. So Gimme will then have a nice relaxed evening after nosework and a walk. And since what we are working on in Ursula's class is proving to be a bit challenging (and frustrating), I think its better that we did that tonight, rather than tomorrow night.

As I've talked about so many times, Gimme has a real challenge with stimulus control. I recently learned of a model for learning styles that I think applies (been discussing it with a canine behavior researcher in Australia). One thing I really like about this model is that it talks about both the pros and cons for each strategy. "Briefly" explained (blue-green are my comments) it goes thus: 
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There are two different learning strategies. The model describes them as either/or; I think its more likely that they are on a continuum. I also think dogs may change strategy or slide up and down the continuum due to various factors. This model surely applies to humans and other critters, it just came from research on dogs. Also, though its described as a "learning strategy" in general, it seems to have the most impact on the stimulus control aspect of learning - which is also what piques my interest. The two strategies are:
  • the stimulus-response strategy (doers)
  • the cognitive strategy (thinkers)
In SR strategy (doers) the dog responds quickly and habitually to a stimulus. These dogs are more focused on consequences and less likely to think through what to do before taking action. They hear a cue and immediately respond without necessarily processing what they heard, often doing the last thing that got favorable consequences. They are behaving by rote in response to a stimulus, any stimulus, and then check to see what result they got. Do keep in mind this describes a learning strategy, so we are talking about the pattern of how the dog learns - it doesn't mean the dog is always that way. IE this isn't etched in stone and yes, it can be modified with training.  Also, just because the doers are not called thinkers, has no reflection on how smart they are - this only applies to how they learn a certain aspect of training. 

In cognitive strategy (thinkers), knowledge of the correct response is linked to a general rule rather than a particular behavior. These dogs might be slower to respond, but are generally more accurate early on. They think about the stimulus and pair it to a known behavior to get a known result.  While the thinkers start out with an advantage... as you will see below, it doesn't seem to last. The doers catch up and in some ways may surpass the thinkers. 

Both groups of dogs end up with an understanding of what different cues mean and the same level of accuracy. The doers eventually pick up the discrimination through association and then become much more thoughtful about their responses. The thinkers are thoughtful right from the start. Thinkers are a little bit faster to learn the stimulus control aspect of the task, but doers are usually super motivated. Thinkers with lower motivation sometimes get bored or distracted and take longer as a result. A focused doer that is not too aroused may pick it up in about the same time, but the tendency is to get over-aroused and then easily frustrated and make more mistakes. And I think vice versa - make more mistakes and get frustrated.

My researcher friend does say that of the dogs in her research project, all but one of the doers tested as overall optimistic. That one doer exception was just neutral, not pessimistic and did turn out to be moderately dysplastic. Every pessimistic dog has been a thinker. She tried to explain to me how the evaluation for optimistic vs. pessimistic is done, but I confess I couldn't get it.

I had an idea that this might be one time when traditional training might provide a "benefit"... When traditional training was in vogue, I think the doers as a result of punishment, had an overall suppression to their behavior. Then being risk averse would cause them to slow down and become more thoughtful - acting more like thinkers. Please do not construe this as any inclination on my part to start using traditional training methods - that stuff is no longer in my training bag, nor do I intend make room for it. Its just a thought I had and my friend thinks it is plausible.
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So where this is most interesting to me is that Gimme has really strong doer tendencies. As this model describes, she tends to hear a cue (stimulus) and throw out a behavior, without necessarily processing what she heard.  We've put a lot of effort since last year into what Ursula calls "listening skills".  Ursula noticed the improvement right away when we started classes this time around.  Gimme is  also very highly motivated and attends more to the consequence than the stimulus itself. Because of that, she makes more mistakes, her rate of reinforcement falls off and then she gets frustrated.

Because this is our biggest training challenge, we've been focusing on it, using the learning of "touch" and "paw" to emphasize it.  One of the elements of stimulus control is that the dog waits to hear the cue before acting and that is by itself hard for Gimme.  In the case of targeting, the prop is there and Gimme tends to see-prop-do-behavior.  Since this way of targeting that I'm learning can use the same prop for different behaviors, its a handy way to make it clearer to Gimme to wait to hear the cue.  Of course with her doer tendency, when she hears the cue - she just leaps into doing without actually paying attention to what the cue meant.  So overall, this is very hard stuff for her.  When she gets frustrated, it definitely impacts her abilities.

Please understand this isn't a case of her not understanding the cues "touch" and "paw"... she's got those down cold.  Remember what I described in my blog the other night?  Gimme was switching back and forth between them with great accuracy, as well as "feet" and "bring" with a bit less accuracy (because they are newer behaviors).  However, at that time we weren't doing any waiting for the cue, so she wasn't dealing with frustration.  And just for the record, there have been times when I've noticed this same issue with "sit" and "down"; I am 500% sure she knows the difference between those two.

In class we have been doing short bursts of training with down time between them, but its still been hard for my beautiful girl.  Tonight I flashed back to how worried Michael would get at our early agility trials and how I'd play the "get it" game to keep him busy and having fun (and thus, not worrying about what was going on around us).  The get it game is really just tossing small bits of treats one at a time in any direction, with the cue "get it".  Real easy for the dog to win and burns off a lot of energy (and frustration), while keeping them busy and entertained.

This worked really well for Gimme tonight, so by the time we did the next training burst, she was really refreshed and did much better.  The get it game worked so well, that I decided when I clicked/treated during the session to toss the treat and let her pounce on it.  That also worked and kept the difficulty of the task from building up frustration.  So our last little session was the best of the evening.

Gimme LOVES training and learning and wants to do it all the time.  She thinks training is loads of fun and quite possibly the best thing she ever taught me how to do.   She is not convinced that we couldn't do this any time, all the time, whenever she is awake.  Some tasks are harder for her - specifically some concepts - and, of course, that is frustrating.  Still she is making good progress.  I believe when she finally grasps the concepts of stimulus control, training is going to take another quantum leap in the fun department.

I love that no matter how hard it is and no matter how frustrating it sometimes is... Gimme never gives up and always keeps trying.  She is certainly the most determined dog I've ever worked with.  I really love her attitude.   And, as I've said at least quarter-million times, she is definitely the smartest dog I've ever worked with.  Not to mention (except I will) that she is also the most beautiful, most loving and most wonderful dog I've ever known...

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