Distraction training
After I taught this morning I took her to a place where we could have a nice walk. Before we even started walking, we did ten check-ins by the car. She got focused very quickly. Where I'd chosen to walk is along a busy street, but much of it is part of a green swath and is about 20 feet back from the road. We walked 2 miles. The other reason I picked this place to have a nice stable surface to walk on, since I'd strained my bad knee training with the 4H-ers Thursday night and I want to make sure it has a few more days before I risk a rougher surface.
I've known before, but have been ignoring that reality, that I've been neglecting walking her on leash and teaching her loose leash walking. I just really enjoy walking with Gimme off lead where she can explore and romp at will and I'm so blessed to have a number of nice places to do just that. So today I picked a place where we could have a long walk without huge amounts of distractions, though I knew some would show up all the same.
The walk started off nice enough and when I forced myself to concentrate on using the EasyWalk to train her, instead of just using it for management, she got a lot better pretty quickly. Amazing what happens when you actually take a little time to train your dog, eh. It was shaping into a nice walk. We had a couple bikers pass us and she just ignores them. We had to cross a couple streets, so she's starting to learn to sit and wait for permission to go forward.
She was doing well and we stopped twice to do a couple behaviors. Just before the turn around point, we passed a home with two small terriers and a bulldog in their yard. Naturally the terriers were barking fools. They were about fifty feet away from us, so I spent some time with metronome feeding. When she was more relaxed about them, we played "whazzat", my cue for the Control Unleashed "look at that" game. Then we moved on. It was interesting that even though she seemed to be relaxed, her loose leash walking suffered. Oftentimes she doesn't show her stress overtly and you only know its happening because of how her performance changes.
We went about another block and had to come back by. I would have preferred to not go past them again on the return trip, but it just wasn't possible. And the street we were on is so busy that I wouldn't have considered crossing the road to increase our distance. However, when we went by them, she paid them little notice... and then sort of stuck her nose up in the air and moved on. It would have been more effective demonstration of 'tude if we hadn't had to stop in five feet to sit and wait for the light!
Also interesting... after that her loose leash walking came right back. So going back past those foolish barkers seemed to work to her advantage. I'm guessing because it gave her the opportunity to deal with them on her terms. Then again I may be anthropomorphizing.
Apple - back into a box, back feet only
Not trained today.
Orange - get onto a small perch with all four feet
Not trained today.
I trained this after melon... it is rapidly becoming Gimme's favorite thing to offer. She is likely to throw it in at the oddest times. Probably because I always end up laughing at her shenanigans and that pleases her inner-clown.
She is exhibiting a tendency to wiggle ever so briefly and then continue rolling over. Even though I'm confident the vast majority of my clicks are hitting when she's momentarily stable on her back, I think that her continuing to roll is getting rewarded along with what I want. So, first off, I've backed off naming this. And I'm also beginning to withhold the click until she holds her on-the-back position a little more. I plan to wait until she will hold in position for a strong 1-2 seconds before putting the name on it.
Peach - head under a chair
She is exhibiting a tendency to wiggle ever so briefly and then continue rolling over. Even though I'm confident the vast majority of my clicks are hitting when she's momentarily stable on her back, I think that her continuing to roll is getting rewarded along with what I want. So, first off, I've backed off naming this. And I'm also beginning to withhold the click until she holds her on-the-back position a little more. I plan to wait until she will hold in position for a strong 1-2 seconds before putting the name on it.
Peach - head under a chair
Melon - push cube with nose
She still likes to bat at the cube with her feet and bite it. I have been unsuccessful in deterring that. I'd been trying to give her the hint by picking it up whenever she used her feet or bit the cube, but it wasn't working. So I tried a different tactic.
But before I did, there was a point halfway through this session where she was getting a bit frustrated by my obtuse insistence on not clicking her creative ideas, so she increased the level of wonderfulness. She threw herself on the floor and grabbed the cube with her feet while doing grape. Or she'd throw herself onto the cube, trying to do grape on it. And a couple times she threw herself down next to it and while doing grape, would push the cube with her cheek or the side of her muzzle. In her not-so-humble opine, a good grape variation is always worthwhile. You have to know I really regretted not getting this on video. I've always loved her ideas and often wish I could use more of them.
After that is when I decided to change my approach. Rather than trying to discourage what I didn't want (pawing and mouthing), I upped the reward with a multi-treat jackpot, for nose pushes. And to make the nose pushes more obvious for both of us, I tried setting the cube on one of the small ends (its about half an inch longer in one direction). Then when she nose touches it, it rocks or falls over. This seemed to work and toward the end she was giving me a lot of nose touches and pushes. It really seemed to finally sink in for her.
Hmmmm focus on rewarding what you do want while ignoring everything else. Now where have I heard that before?
We also today got started on our long platforms ala Michelle Pouliet. As always, I was astonished by how quickly Gimme picked this up. Her brilliance makes training so much fun. At one point, she did try many other variations. She just never quite believes that I'm going to be happy with the simple and boring ideas I come up with. She did lots of forehand pivots, spins, dancing in place and, of course, several grapes...
She is the funny one...
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